It's the place at the office where we congregate on breaks, where we step away from our cubicles and relax, and where we bask in aromas that make us jealous they are not ours for the taking. No, not the men's room.
I'm talking about the office kitchen. It's the home of four-month old cream cheese, the birthday cake no one at home ate, and the pot someone left an eye-dropper full of coffee in so they wouldn't have to make another.
Trucks has been on the web for barely a week, and after receiving nearly 30,000 hits (well short of Gorilla’s current 2.2 million) there are already multiple parodies featuring Europe (the band, not the country), The James Bond theme, a BBC news report voiceover, two with tags for British Airways, Bon Jovi, Huey Lewis and the News, one with no audio at all, a Vandals cover of Don't Stop Me Now, and of course, Phil Collins back in his Genesis days. I guess some people out there just can’t enjoy their Cadbury Dairy Milk without the man who replaced Peter Gabriel. Anyway, enjoy.
Livin’ on a Prayer—Bon Jovi (Lower res, but the song totally works.)
Land of Confusion—Genesis (Genesis=Good. Phil Collins=yawn.)
The Power of Love—Huey Lewis and the News (I don’t know why, but this is my favorite. I guess it feels more fun than the rest.)
This is the newest spot for Cadbury from A Glass and a Half Full Productions, the same people who brought you "Balls" and "Gorilla." Now I personally never loved Gorilla. I thought it was unique, but like many people, I watched wondering What the heck is this for? I arrived at the end thinking, A gorrilla playing the drums. I wasted 90 seconds of my life to watch a gorilla hammer out the most overplayed Phil Collins song ever. I don't want to listen to it on the radio, let alone watch some simian with a better sense of rhythm than me bang it out on the skins.
Some attributed a 2007 Cadbury sales increase of 9% over the same period in 2006 to the Gorilla campaign, which also consisted of billboards, ads and events among other executions. However, back in 2006, Cadbury was reeling from bad press due to a recall brought about by salmonella fears. Was Gorilla the reason for their success, or were they just bouncing back from a prior year that had been dragged down by consumer backlash?
Personally, this sort of advertising doesn't work for me. Was this spot more entertaining than Gorilla? Absolutely. It was fun and they actually chose a good song, Queen's Don't Stop Me Now. However, I go back to the same problem I had with Gorilla. In no way does this make me want to buy a Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar. Now maybe this is because I wasn't subjected to the entire ad campaign, and hand-dipped in a desire for the sweet nectar that is Cadbury. Or maybe I'm too much of a linear thinker. A+B=Buy Chocolate.
Now I know I always want to do something more creative, cool, slick or funny, to push the client and do something no one's ever seen before. Then coworkers and clients reply, How does this sell Brand X? And when I don't have an answer, the idea ends up on the pile with one of my many post-apocalyptic or "too creepy" ideas.
As advertisers, yes, we need to push our clients. More interesting advertising gets the viewer's attention and makes us excited about our work. However, do you ever get the feeling that some agencies just know how to smooth-talk clients so they'll pay them to do something "different"?
However, if you loved Gorilla or Trucks, I have this creepy, post-apocalyptic ad for a spot you're gonna think is hysterical.
And special thanks to Scampblog, our friends from across the pond, who beat us to the punch on this one.
You may have the best product in the world, but if you don't have some sort of concept on how to get the product to your market and how to make sure the world sees how brilliant it is, it'll remain on the shelf with such other failed inventions like Nuclear Fusion. (Whatever Princeton, keep flouting your Tokamak*, but until I see one in the back of every Delorean in the country, it's just another one of your other pie in the sky ideas the public never bought into. Will anyone get both of those references? I don't care. I do it for the love, not for the fans.) Anyway, for your reading pleasure
The Friday Haiku: Marketing Plans
We've got a plan to solve everything.
Listen to us and your product will sing.
The people will buy.
You won't even have to try.
Wait, this was a limerick. Good thing I'm not in marketing.
We are crazy busy today at the Renegade, but here's a quick one a friend sent me. For some reason it's in the style of a motivational poster, but it makes me wonder:
How did this cross-promotion never happen!
Oh well, I guess Arby's will just have to wait until the 600 comes out.
Okay, I found something new to hate—Sonic, you know the Oklahoma-based fast-food chain know as “America’s Drive-In,” home to hand-made onion rings and a variety of fresh fruit limeades. Why do I loathe this fast food chain with simple, humorous marketing and 168,894 potential drink combinations? Well, despite frequently observing commercials for their “Happy Hour” or Java Chillers, I can’t actually sample any of their delectable burgers or refreshing “Famous Slushes,” because, according to Mapquest, the nearest Sonic to my house in Baltimore, Md, is 90.23 miles away—in LANCASTER, PA.
(I should note that although I am a fan of Mapquest and use it all the time, they actually take no responsibility for the inaccuracy of any of their maps. So a Sonic could actually be around the corner and I might not even know it, like the Arby’s that’s been around the corner from my office for who knows how long. But check out the fine print at the bottom of the page I used to locate my "neighborhood" Sonic.) So why in the blue blazes am I being advertised to by a fast food chain that it would take me longer to drive back and forth to than to make a 12 pound ham! (According to the fine people at Smithfield, a spiral cut glazed ham should be cooked for approximately 15 minutes per pound.) (Also, 12 pound hams are not available at Sonic…America’s Drive-In.)
This brings me back to a Baltimore car dealership we consulted with last year. They were spending a million dollars a year in broadcast advertising, hitting people more than 70 miles away, while people in their own neighborhood didn’t even know they were there.
Now, maybe this works in rural areas where new car dealerships might be few and far between, but in a major Metropolitan area where the nearest car dealership is probably only 10 minutes from your home, the only way you’d get me to drive 70 miles to go car shopping is if you were giving away a free car with my car. The same way I’m not gonna drive an hour to get fast food no matter how much cheese, chili or crispy bacon I can put on my SuperSONIC® Double Meat, Double Cheese SONIC® Burger…with bacon…and chili. Did I say cheese already?
Now I often talk about knowing who you’re advertising to, but it’s also important to think about where you’re advertising.
Media Buying: Broadcast vs. Cable Cross-Channel.
Broadcast works. You know an audience is there. Even at 4 a.m. in the morning, SOMEONE is watching a rerun of CSI: Miami, or Beneath the Planet of the Apes on the CW. But broadcast advertising is expensive, and you pay a lot of money to cast a very wide net. If you’re a big company, say Kraft Foods Inc., makers of delicious Country Time Lemonade, you’re advertising to a large market, and you can afford an expensive media buy. But say you’re a neighborhood lemonade stand, rubbing your nickels together to produce the finest fresh-squeezed lemonade on all of Maplewood Dr. Now you could spend thousands to drop your flyers on all of sunny Pleasantville, New Jersey. Or you COULD print a few dozen and leave them on your neighbors’ front steps, because they are the only people who are going to bother to stop by your lemonade stand…right now. (I’ve seen your business model, and in 20 years, you’ll be giving those Kraft goons what for.)
Broadcasting advertising is effective, and when you begin to grow beyond your local footprint, you’ll need broadcast to get your message further. But at times, broadcast can be like throwing an enormous net into water where fish just aren’t that hungry. Cross-channel advertising may not necessarily have such a wide net, but it does have tasty little hooks you can specifically aim at the fish much closer to your boat—and a lot of those hooks (that’s a metaphor for frequency, meaning you get more actual commercials for your dollar than with broadcast).
When you think about where you’re going to advertise, think about 1) your budget, and 2) where is your audience. Do you need to spend millions of dollars on your media buy, shooting for the far corners of the state? Or could you save a lot of money, taking closer aim at the people in your county, city or town.
I think my message here is pretty clear. Sonic, please send my free SuperSonic® Cheeseburger with hot chili and crispy bacon to:
Thanks to the Indoor Tanning Association (ITA), people everywhere now know the health benefits of looking like Johnny Bench's catcher's mitt.
The ITA has launched an aggressive campaign to open the naive public eye and expose the deceit of villains like the American Academy of Dermatologists and The Skin Cancer Foundation. The ITA campaign's website, sunlightscam.com, sums it up for those of us in the dark.
“The bottom line is clear:Don’t trust the sunscreen industry’s front groups for advice on skin cancer. Their sole interest is in adding profits to the sunscreen industry’s bottom line, not protecting your health.”
Greedy capitalists. According to the website, the ITA "represents thousands of indoor tanning manufacturers, distributors, facility owners and members from other supporting industries." But they don't care about the "all-mighty" dollar. This isn't about adding profits to the indoor tanning industry's bottom line—it's about our health. In fact, Sarah Longwell of the ITA claims that moderate tanning is becoming "just what the doctor ordered."
Perhaps my vitamin D-deficient memory escapes me, because I can't recall my dermatologist writing me a prescription for Sun Seekers Tanning. Then again, he's probably a member of the American Academy of Dermatologists. Jerk.
Now that cancer's been ruled out, we can all bake our skin without guilt—just in time for summer! Thanks, Indoor Tanning Association, for promoting the health benefits of tanning to a society that has proven, time and time again, to understand the concept of moderation.
Sorry, sunscreen industry. Maybe you should switch to wrinkle cream. Those healthy tanners are gonna need it.
This refreshing campaign opens doors for other products and habits that get bad raps. Why not put a new twist on, say, diuretics?
"Doctors" want you to believe that popping diuretics to lose weight can lead to severe liver and kidney problems. Why? Because they've been commissioned by gyms and exercise equipment manufacturers to make you think exercise is the healthy option. They've caused thousands upon thousands of overweight citizens to suffer through sprains, pulls, and soreness while "working" out. Stop believing the hype. Diuretics are the healthy and safe way to lose weight! Can we expect the up-and-coming generations to be anorexic waifs with liver damage? Let's hope not. Yes, our industry generates advertisements to make products look good, but some level of morality and social responsibility needs to be maintained. As for ITA and their ad campaign? Well, let's just hope the general population is smarter than this young lady.
--Alicia Taft, Course Developer/Copywriter
Editors Note: After posting we realized that was not a woman, that was famed prop comedian, Carrot Top. He's still way too tan. Carrot Top, you're Irish, or at least Northern German. Just deal with it.
It's the place at the office where we congregate on breaks, where we step away from our cubicles and relax, and where we bask in aromas that make us jealous they are not ours for the taking. No, not the men's room. 
