Marketing Hipster

There has been some interesting discussions here on a previous post of mine discussing the two guys kissing and chest hair pulling Snickers commercial. When launched the commercial drove users to the web site afterthekiss.com. Though today if you try out that URL, you will just be redirected to the Snickers site.

AdRants has a good write up on this where they say,

“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.”

Though I do hear that the follow-up commercial to this will be video of everyone in the marketing department of Snickers pulling out their own chest hair after seeing their sales drop from their commercial being aired on the SuperBowl.

Technorati Tags: two guys kissing, Snickers, commercial

Did you see the Snickers commercial named “Chest Hair” during the Superbowl? If not, you can watch it below. Now even though I am very in touch with my feminine side, I ask a very simple question. How does two men kissing followed by them tearing out their chest hair make you hungry for a snickers, let alone hungry for anything? It kind of made me nauseas to tell you the truth.

Technorati Tags: Snickers commercial, Superbowl

A friend of mine sent me a link to this story about how newspapers are launching a 75 million dollar ad campaign fighting the image that newspapers are on the decline.

“One campaign slogan reads: “The Internet is the best thing to happen to newspapers since the paper boy.” A central figure is a cartoon character seen reading a newspaper online while carrying a cellular phone tower and typing on two keyboards.”

I am going to put this into my DOH! category as there are a litany of things wrong with this. Here are my thoughts:

1. Anytime in the history of the world that a company has had to advertise that they are not dead, is the immortal sign that they are truly dead.
2. Here’s a crazy thought… Why don’t you take that 75 million and innovate a new product or service to actually make yourself relevant instead of just telling us you are?
3. Or take the 75 million and answer the following questions for me:
• How do expect to compete for ad dollars against sites like craigslist who does not charge for classified ads while you do?
• How are you going to compete against both job sites as well as the numerous networking sites?
• How are you going to compete in the face of 24/7 cable news coverage and bloggers?
• How are you going to overcome a generation of users who have NEVER read a newspaper and get all their news online?

And finally, with all the great technology out there, are you telling me there is still no printing method available that I don’t have to get ink all over my hands and fingers after reading a newspaper?

Good luck on the campaign boys, I am sure it will yield fabulous results.

Technorati Tags: newspapers