They’re clever, to the point, humorous, tight and entertaining … BUT, they’re more “Pepsi-like” than “Coke-like”. Here’s another commercial to compare to my last post.
Archive for February, 2007
Another Wolf
February 14th, 2007 by Chief Nut
A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing
February 14th, 2007 by Chief NutArguably, one of the longest standing, hardest hitting, most brutal of all brand battles; Coke vs. Pepsi.
Coke: Generations of brand power. Tapping into the “Innocent” or “Angel” archetype, we’ve all enjoyed a lifetime of wonderfully warm and fuzzy ‘feel good’ advertising that dips into a deep sense of nostalgia (overlooking that whole New Coke debaucle, of course). Take a look at this fabulous example of Coke in it’s hay day if you need a reminder of why Coke is the powerhouse brand that it is.
Pepsi: Laser focus on the “Jester” or “Trickster” archetype allows this brand to be funky, wacky, funny, playful, bold and brazen. Take a look at an older Jimmy Fallon commercial, as well as the new pinball campaign. It doesn’t get any more “jester” than that!
OK, NOW take a look at THIS commercial and tell me who you think it should be? Wild car rides, edgy CG effects, guys in leather jackets, chaotic action. The lyrics “…you give a little love and it all comes back to you” could be seen as a continuation of brand history, but the overall effect is just too close to the Pepsi brand.
I hope they don’t decide to call it “Newer New Coke.”
The Heated Debate Begins
February 12th, 2007 by Chief NutOF COURSE it was going to happen after publishing something like my last post. Heavy sigh. Joan writes;
Your points on this are well taken BUT consider if you lost your mother, father, son, daughter, wife or husband to suicide via a bridge jumping. Would you feel entertained by such an advertisement? Since 32,000 Americans complete suicide each year and each of these suicides guinely effects a minimum of 6-8 people, that is a huge group of people to offend…not to mention all of the mental health practitioners, physicians and researchers who are working to save lives.
PLEASE don’t think of me as an insensitive brute! I think you missed my point. I’m not endorsing what GM did … I would probably not have done the bridge-jumping thing. BUT, I would have definitely gone far enough to upset some OTHER group!
Consider the Nationwide Insurance commercial with Kevin Federline that heated up the Restaurant Industry to the point where they too asked to have the ad pulled. Before getting all wound up, I’m NOT comparing “rapping in a restaurant” to “suicide”. However, you can’t discount the fact that this group of restauranteurs were truly upset by the commercial! Did the Nationwide marketing team purposely try to tick off people who work in restaurants OR did they simply play on the idea that everyone has dreams … some dream BIG … let’s call it “the human condition”. If you can imagine a kid working as a fry cook dreaming of being a rap star you can then actually picture in your mind the commercial happening in real life. The play on the idea comes when an actual rap star (and I use that term VERY loosely) is caught in the act. FUNNY STUFF!
More on the Human Condition:
This was a topic of quite a bit of discussion/debate in our office today. The effectiveness of all three of these ads is based on; observation of the human condition and of stereotypes. The human condition of the GM ad is; how do people in an automobile plant feel when they worry about the quality of their work? Do they fear for their jobs? If they lose their job, how will it affect them? THAT’S the “human condition.”
So, if the GM ad doesn’t work, WHERE did they go wrong? I would say they tapped into the wrong emotion - too much fear and sadness! There are VERY few people who will walk away from watching that ad with the feeling that it was “funny” … or they could “relate with it” … or that “GM really cares” … or “GM must understand quality because I too have those fears”. Why? Because the visual of a robot waking from a suicide dream is STILL on the topic of suicide, it’s almost impossible to get the viewer focused back on any other emotion. Yes, emotions are powerful and HUGELY important in the development of great brand/advertising.
Back to the KFed fiasco…. what’s the human condition? It’s the reality that people have dreams beyond where their jobs are located. If the marketing team for Nationwide would have instead picked garbage truck drivers, or dental hygienists, or dishwasher repairmen, or hotel bellhops, or, or, or …. I’m sure we would have somebody else up in arms instead of restauranteurs. That’s not really the point though is it? The point is that KFed put himself out there in a self-deprecating display that was intended to be funny.
Final Words:
Again, my last post was NOT to defend or endorse the GM ad. It was to point out that emotions are powerful things and when you use them in your brand development (AND YOU SHOULD), you run the risk of polarizing the world. To this I say “GREAT!!” If I can polarize the world with my own brand and only get 1/10th of 1 percent of all the people on the planet to be true, die-hard, dyed in the wool, evangelists for my company …€” and the other 99.9% think I’m looney …€” I’ll be MORE than happy to provide services only to those 6 Million people on my side. This is a MUCH better strategy than to be completely bland and safe with nobody on your side.
Keep those cards and letters comin’!
What’s REALLY Going On Here?
February 12th, 2007 by Chief NutA couple of advertising issues in the news:
1) The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has asked that GM pull it’s ad that features an assembly line robot jumping off a bridge.
2) The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) AND the Human Rights Campaign have similarly asked Masterfoods (makers of the Snickers bar) to pull their most recent ad, claiming it is offensive and defamatory to gays and lesbians.
Let me begin by stating that creating an ad campaign that potentially endangers lives, offends the majority of viewers or severely degrades corporate brand value is just plain bad. Consider the recent Cartoon Network “Bomb Scare” ad campaign in Boston … definitely not good for sales.
HOWEVER, when you create a campaign that is edgy, bold and differentiates you from your competitors, you should expect some people to get a little T.O.’d. If that doesn’t happen at all, you probably didn’t take the idea far enough. Water down your ads to the point where nobody even comments, and you also water down your effectiveness.
What really gets my goat is the kinds of reactions the above ads got. Let’s take them one at a time….
1) The GM ad DIDN’T show the robot jumping off a bridge, it showed a robot dreaming about jumping off of a bridge. Minor distinction, for sure, but it’s important. If you’re going to create an ad that portrays a robot with anthropomorphic qualities of fear, depression, loss and sorrow, you might show it having such a terrible dream. This commercial is NOT an endorsement of bridge-jumping … it is simply the portrayal of something totally unexpected …€” a robot thinking like a human. It’s this unexpected idea that makes the ad powerful.
2) Although stereotypes are generally “bad”, they can’t be ignored and they can sometimes be the basis for a wealth of ad ideas. The stereo-type of two manly-men working in a garage, head down in an engine compartment (right or wrong), is something most people ‘get’. The unexpected event is when one guy leans over to eat the candy bar out of the other guy’s mouth (a la The Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene). YOWZA! If that were to ever actually happen in the real world, what would you expect these two testosterone-laden guys to do?? I’m bettin’ a bit of macho, chest hair pulling is in order! This isn’t defamatory against gays and lesbians any more than the Jack McFarland character’s (Will & Grace) comments about straight guys was defamatory to heterosexuals. Both cases are simply portraying a character doing pretty much what you’d expect them to do.
Lesson to be learned; If you’re in the process of creating brand, don’t let these kinds of events instill ANY kind of fear in your decision-making. BE BOLD! Don’t be afraid to differentiate!
Stick THAT in Your Pipe ….
February 11th, 2007 by Chief NutRohit Bhargava and Robin Good both give a great review of the relevancy of Yahoo! Pipes.
Here’s my quickie example of what Yahoo Pipes can do; Imagine a tool that takes a football photo from Flikr, matches it up with the latest sporting news events from CNN and then feeds up the best deals on flight and hotel information to the upcoming matches in your area. Pipes allows the ultimate mashing of hugely disparate resources from all over the web in an unlimited number of ways. Coooooooooooool! It’s kinda like an RSS feed on steroids.
The Artist’s Way
February 11th, 2007 by Chief Nut
A good friend told me about a 12 week study course called The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. I’ve just started it and I can already tell it’s going to be one of those life-changing, earth moving, mind-bending, paradigm altering affairs.
Friday evening I read a little tid-bit in the book’s early pages how you should focus your efforts on things you’re drawn to AS WELL AS those things you find you’re shying away from. The “neutral” things in life, you’ve likely got covered. The ones that you’re attracted to indicate where your passions lie and the one’s you’re avoiding are likely things you need to address. Simple idea … BIG impact.
In just two days, I’m amazed at how relevant this one idea is to being productive and keeping me focused on the important tasks in my schedule.
Are YOU resisting anything in your business development? … in your marketing plan? If so, take it as a sign that these things need to be done first! Simply dive in … the water’s warm.
On Words, Pegs and Ideas
February 9th, 2007 by Chief NutHow Many Marketers Does It Take …
February 9th, 2007 by Chief Nut
Got a creative mind? Are you into marketing? Wanna play?
We’ll be attending the Global Marketing Summit in Myrtle Beach in a few weeks and will be rubbing elbows with some marketing “big wigs”. Part of what we’re doing is creating an “event” of sorts that revolves around the old joke “How many <blanks> does it take…?” For our event (duh), the specific question is:
How many marketers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
If you have a creative answer to this, visit our Squidoo lens and let us know how wacky you really are! We’ll be giving away prizes for our pick of the best answer. GOOD LUCK!
This Post Isn’t a Coincidence
February 8th, 2007 by Chief NutFive or Six years ago, I read The Celestine Prophesy. I’m not a terribly religious guy, however, there was one very interesting thing that I picked up in the first reading of the book. (BTW, I’ve read it several times since). That is; the universe will continually throw “coincidences” at you until you take notice. It was that one insight that has had the most profound effect on my life since then …€” especially in business.
My wife, her sister and a good friend of ours ALSO believe that if you don’t take notice, eventually you’ll get hit in the head by the “universal frying pan” …. OUCH! Been there a few times. In retrospect, if you think you’ve been hit by the frying pan a few times in your life, PLEASE heed this advice;
TIP: If you stay open minded and actively keep an eye out for these “coincidences” and NOT shrug them off as meaningless but, instead, take action on them, the positive effect is an amazing thing. The more you open up, the more you notice. The more you take action, the more momentum the effects have.
There’s also a big movement right now surrounding the “Law of Attraction” … same thing.
Seth Godin posts about “Coincidences” here. In one story, he sat next to a “sort of weird guy” on an airplane and then ran into the same gentleman in a hotel gym later that evening. Spooooooky. In days gone by I would have brushed off this coincidence with a “…hmm, that’s odd” sort of remark. NOW, I’d go out of my way to engage this person in a conversation to find out what the connection is …€” why the universe is so clearly shoving us together. I’ve not once yet been disappointed in what I’ve discovered in that type of encounter.
Final advice: Open up … but avoid that frying pan!
On Lions and Lust
February 4th, 2007 by Chief NutJohn Lahr, prolific writer and son of Burt Lahr (Wizard of Oz’s Cowardly Lion), shares with us all:
“Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.”
Feeeed Meee
