Apparently, the backlash over the Snickers Super Bowl commercial in which two men end up kissing after eating a Snickers bar from opposite ends was too much for the company to take and, as a result, the candy maker has taken down the commercial's accompanying website, afterthekiss.com. Typing in the URL simply redirects to the Snickers site.
While we liked this spot purely for its shock value, there's a faintly high probability this will have a very real negative affect on sales. Can you imagine the looks one will now receive from the checkout clerk when they buy a Snickers bar? That's just way too much snickering for most people to take and there's plenty of other perfectly good candy choices with far less embarrassment attached to them.
more »
Looks like Northwestern Mutual realized that marketing is about engaging customers, not just setting impersonal messages out to sail and hoping that small nudge into the big ocean will yield die-hard customers.
Per their own words, the brand "no longer desires to remain reserved and
unassuming." This year they'll be bold and assertive in their communications efforts.
Wreck Your Worries, a calming space where you can characterize your concerns and choose a weapon to destroy them (we picked the golf club), heralds the intro for the new Northwestern. The campaign reminds us that we do take our problems to the office space, and now instead of stewing over them in passive aggressive silence we can blow holes through them with a mase on an insurance website.
A little silly, but we like it.
We're going to venture a guess and say Pepsi is fast losing the identity contest between itself and Coke, which reminded everyone in its series of Super Bowl spots of its place in feel-good Americana. That's the only explanation we have for this invitation to design Pepsi's next billboard, a campaign that falls in line with their new series of customized can designs. Very Jones Soda.
Well, here's to hoping Pepsi finds what it's looking for (a salute to the spirit of youth and discovery, according to their site intro). If nothing else, the Super Bowl showed us consumers can outdo marketers on their own territory. And we have yet to see a really good consumer-generated print ad.
We were ready to pan this new campaign by Old Spice but after exploring it we realized there was no way that we could. Experience Old Spice reaches for a younger demographic, but instead of trying to make itself young and cool like other brands, Old Spice positions itself as the brand of choice for men of culture and experience.
And who better to tell you what manliness is than Bruce Campbell, the kitsch king who demolishes zombies with chainsaws and boomsticks?
The campaign includes a 50-question test gauging whether you're man or boy. And instead of asking beer-oriented questions while a chick undresses, these are actually pretty tough. Can most 20-something guys tell the difference between a Monet and a Van Gogh? We're sure they'll be able to after this.
Also check out the section where worldly men their pass life experience on. Learn critical skills like how to shake hands like a Siberian and how to read aircraft gauges. And get advice from Bruce Campbell himself.
We love this campaign. We just love it. And we hope they expand on the effort, because it's the perfect way to reinvigorate an aging brand.
So, Pizza Hut's removed most everything we found unliveable about their Pizza Hut delivery guy effort on MySpace. This time around they're shooting for something innocuous and mild, changing their protagonist from a ridiculously self-absorbed tool to a fairly average gamer and HD lover.
The updated MySpace also includes Youtube videos that pretty much demonstrate how irresistible the guy is when he's got a box of pizza in his hands. Judging from the jump in friends (it's nearly doubled), the revamped MySpace is apparently slightly more palatable than the previous effort, but unless Pizza Hut plans on using the guy outside of MySpace in long-term ad campaigns or other guerilla efforts, we don't see it working much in their favour.
We've seen teases of this Budweiser Super Bowl ad in which an army of crabs steals a cooler full of Bud, makes off with it and then bows at its feet in worship. Although we're not sure highlighting the worship of your product by such lowly creatures as crabs is necessarily a positive. It's OK though because the commercial has hotties in bikinis in it to distract us from that notion. See the ad here.
OK, this is just gross. There's a reason why hot women (and men) are allowed to take their shirts off and strut their stuff for the general public's appreciation. That's the reason why that 2003 Miller Catfight Super Bowl spot received so much notoriety. While Miller did create a male hottie version of the pool/mud wrestling spot, the two guys in that ad stopped short of having an actual fight and got all "sensitive man" on us to which, we wrote, "Oh please...can't they just beat the shit out of each other like the girls did in the mud wrestling spot?"
more »
A tipster tells us the hair care brand Sunsilk was behind the creation of the strange "bridezilla" video which was posted on YouTube January 18 and received 9 million views before it was pulled. It's back up now and in the video, a bride enters a hotel room full of bride's maids, proceeds to flip out and cut her hair off because it looks so bad. Initially thought to be an innocently created farce, it's now been revealed the four women in the video are actresses and were paid to appear in it. What wasn't known until now, according to our source, is that Sunsilk, working with Toronto-based Capital C Communications, was initially involved but backed out at the last minute. It's unclear why Sunsilk separated itself from the project.
While the four women are getting all the glory right now, we've spoken to the director of the video who has graciously promised us more details as soon as he makes sure all his legal "I's" and "T's" are properly crossed. As soon as we have more information, we will gleefully pass it along to you.
UPDATE: Sunsilk, perhaps jealous of all the media attention the four actors are receiving, is now acknowledging their involvement with the creation of the video.
In a witty ploy for press, Taco Bell, unlike other fast food brands who have derided Nationwide's depiction of the fast food career as less than desirable, has offered a job to Kevin Federline and the promise of a customized Taco Bell uniform. Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed sent this offer letter:
Dear Mr. Federline,
First off, congratulations on your upcoming Super Bowl ad. We heard it's generating a lot of talk, particularly about working in the fast food industry.
We know you respect those who work in our business. In fact, last year you said in an interview, "My kids are going to have to learn what a real job is, what life is. You don't have it easy with me. Period. My kids are going to work at Taco Bell."
We're flattered, but obviously they're too young to work for us. So here's our offer to you: Come work for us, just for a one hour shift. We'll get you a uniform, a custom name tag and show you what a great place Taco Bell is to work. We'll even reward customers who visit that restaurant with an order of our new Carne Asada Steak Grilled Taquitos for free.
We encourage you to continue to "Think Outside the Bun" and hope you accept our tasty offer.
Sincerely,
Greg Creed
President
Taco Bell Corp.
Now, that's the kind of marketing think we respect and appreciate.
Here's some GM Super Bowl commercial leaky leak that, if we're understanding the commercial correctly, claims robots won't build cars anymore because they aren't as good as humans. Hmm. Can anyone imagine a GM production line staffed entirely by humans with no assist from those cool, yellow robots? i guess we'll find out during the game.
UPDATE: The robot has...drumroll please...a blog!
|
|
