More recession-driven advertising messages
More recession-driven advertising messages
A recent article in the New York Times looks at how agencies are creating new ads that express the "outrage, frustration and fear felt by consumers hit hard by what some are calling the Great Recession".
Eastman Kodak is running ads for a new line of printers and inkjet cartridges that rant about a “$5 billion stain” on the economy caused by “overpaying” for other brands of inkjet printer ink. In the UK, Kodak is running a similar campaign, with a website called Print and Propser, which asks "Fed up with expensive ink?".
In the US, McDonald’s has just introduced an expanded coffee line, featuring cappuccinos, mochas and lattes. The launch is supported by a new advertising campaign attacking expensive cofee chains, including this poster ad which proclaims "Four bucks is dumb".
Nescafe has launched an outdoor campaign in Chicago and Seattle as a counter to Starbucks' test of Via instant coffee in the two cities: one Chicago subway car, plastered in the ads, makes the price case this way: "Starbucks makes great instant. We make great instant. So why does theirs cost 400% more?" The style, copy and typeface strongly resemble advertising for the Starbucks brand and Starbucks Via. Nescafe has also taken the battle online: TastersChoice.com asserts that "Good coffee is not expensive." It offers a budget calculator and free samples and, borrowing from McDonald's UnSnobbycoffee.com, urges consumers to stage a "coffee intervention."
In the NYT article, Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, chief marketing officer at the Eastman Kodak Company says, “We’re turning up the volume in relation to what our customers are feeling".
The article also identifies other brands trying to echo consumer anger:
Post Shredded Wheat cereal, which declares in new ads that “Progress is overrated” and “Innovation is not your friend"
JetBlue Airways revels in the discomfort of chief executives forced off corporate jets by greeting them with a sardonic “Welcome aboard”
Miller High Life is being sold by a blue-collar character who delights in removing the beer from hoity-toity bars, restaurants and stores that he believes are shortchanging shoppers
And Harley-Davidson says fear of recession sucks and doesn't last long with its "Screw It. Let's Ride" campaign.
The NYT article also asks in which category might anger be appropriate, and suggests, "perhaps for one of the ground zeroes of the economy, financial services". A campaign for the Bessemer Trust Company, which helps the wealthy manage their money, carries this frank headline: “Why should you believe anything we say?”
Monday, 18 May 2009 09:43