Food for thought: The spy who sold out
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
Sometimes, someone in a marketing department gets it in their head that they’re going to lift their brand out of its comfort zone, make a big statement and put it on a pedestal. Sometimes that decision leads to brilliance. And sometimes it leads to a disconnect, or worse, a message that leaves the audience scoffing at misguided self-aggrandizement.
Two cases in point made their way into my living room via the television, as recently as last evening.
The first: KFC’s romantic/dramatic delusions about their new boneless chicken fillets. I’m a closet fan of the Colonel and expect it’s delicious. But, this commercial is trying to make the point that ‘special things come in a box’ with parallels that include an engagement ring, a birthday surprise, the landmark anniversary token, etc. The music is poignant. It’s shot all warm and fuzzy. It climaxes with a reveal of… chicken in box.
If they set out to be funny they missed by a furlong. If, on the other hand, they actually thought they were going to get me to connect “emotionally” with chicken because it comes in, well, a box, then frankly they should be sent to their room without any chicken in a box tonight.
The second: It’s no secret that youth markets are elusive. They often turn up as a gap in market share analysis, and I applaud any hard working marketer or agency partner who rolls up his or her sleeves to try to crack this nut. But have you witnessed the collection of platitudes Miracle Whip is using to try to connect with youth?
The tagline is “We are Miracle Whip. And we will not tone it down.” No, apparently not, because they’ve seemingly ambushed the set of a Canada’s Wonderland commercial, blown the dust off some late-80s Molson Canadian super treatments and bucketed a bunch of long tired advertising clichés like “don’t blend in,” “don’t go unnoticed,” and “don’t be so bland,” under the doozy of a catch phrase: “don’t be so mayo.”
Here’s what one Youtuber had to say: “boycott miracle whip for patronizing their consumers. what kind of idiot would be more inclined to buy miracle whip because its now the ‘rebellious’ thing to do.”
All this to say, yes you should stretch your brand. Yes you should break out of your category expectations and stereotypes. But try not to let those fluorescents in the boardroom blind you to just who you (and your brand) can realistically be out there in the light of day.
Mike Sutton
November 9, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you….for calling out Miracle Whip on this one. The first time I saw it several weeks ago I nearly hurled. My summation of this move is 3 words “trying too hard”.
Rich Pryce-Jones
November 11, 2009 @ 7:06 pm
My summation is even shorter – to paraphrase Spinal Tap – “Shit Sandwich”. But, sadly we know nothing, because right now a VP of marketing is patting themselves on the back saying “Ya baby, 99,000 views on youtube!”
And the next thing you know, “Don’t be so mayo” will become the new “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”, thus validating the strategy in the eyes of the hacks that made this cringe inducing piece of self-important schlock.
Graham Budd
November 13, 2009 @ 5:49 pm
Check this out, can’t verify if this is for real (or actually happened) but apparently Stephen Colbert agrees with you Dave, and Miracle Whip retorted by buying up all the media. Here is a letter from Digg:
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Miracle_Whip_Vs_Colbert_Pic
Interesting….