Category — Food Advertising
McDonald’s New Commercial Appeals to the Coveted “Gay French Teenager” Demographic
This is the new McDonald’s commercial that’s generating all the interest online. It’s called “Come As You Are”.
In it, a teenage boy sits in a McDonald’s, wistfully looking at his class picture and caressing it with his finger while talking to the obvious object of his affection on the phone. As his father approaches, he quickly hangs up and then listens to his dad tell him how much of a ladies’ man he was at his son’s age. The eventual reveal is that the son goes to an all boys school, so the object of his affection on the other end of the phone was another boy. That’s a twist ending worthy of M. Night Shyamalan.
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October 14, 2010 Comments Off
Good News: Kellogg Will Drop Michael Phelps From It’s Endorsement Deal
It looks like Kellogg will be ending its endorsement deal with giant torso and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps after a picture of him smoking a bong have surfaced in the UK tabloid News of the World. Phelps admitted to smoking weed and apologized for his “regrettable” behavior and “bad judgment”, and blamed it on youthful indiscretion. This really won’t put a dent in his income though, since he still on board with a load of major sponsors like Visa and Speedo.
Still, Kellogg said Phelps’s actions are “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.” So they’re not renewing his contract when it expires at the end of February. The thing is, I’m happy about it. Now, don’t take that the wrong way, I’m 100% for the legalization of marijuana. The “war on drugs” is the reason the United States has the highest population of prison inmates in the entire world. The US has 5% of the world’s population, and nearly 25% of it’s prisoners. It’s not just per capita either; the US actually has 2.3 million criminals in it’s prisons, more than any other country; all because of the “war on drugs”. So I don’t care that Phelps smoked some weed, that means nothing to me. I’m happy he’s off Kellogg cereal boxes because he’s a freaking douche. Read on for my rationale:
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February 6, 2009 1 Comment
Whopper Sacrifice: Prove Your Love For The Burger King
Burger King is all about the viral kookiness these days, and their latest advertising enterprise is actually pure genius. They’ve created the “Whopper Sacrifice,” Facebook application, which will give you a coupon for a free Whopper if you delete 10 people from your Facebook friends list.
Burger King got me interested with their Whopper Virgins ads, and initially I loved this campaign because of how it seemingly makes fun of all the Facebook obsessed freaks out there. The website says: “Now is the time to put your fair-weather Web friendships to the test. Install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we’ll reward you with a free flame-broiled Whopper when you sacrifice ten of your friends.” And the app actually makes each “sacrifice” show up in your activity feed for everyone to see. It says something like “Vito sacrificed Jimmy James for a free Whopper.”
But I thought about it, and wondered what BK could possibly gain from this. And then it came to me:
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January 8, 2009 1 Comment
New Ambient Ads For Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes On London’s Pavement
Up until this afternoon, I was totally unaware that the cereal eating habits of society change during the colder parts of the year. It makes perfect sense though; apparently, cold cereal sales drop off during the winter months as people switch to hot breakfasts like oatmeal and farina.
In an attempt to keep customers eating their daily bowl of cold corn flakes during the autumn months leading up to winter, ad agency JWT London has created this “ambient” campaign for Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut CornFlakes. They enlisted the pavement artist Jon Hicks to draw large Kellogg’s bowls around London sidewalks, and sweep the autumn leaves into them to emulate the cornflakes. Clever stuff. Check out some pictures of Jon Hicks working:
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December 27, 2008 1 Comment
Burger King’s ‘Whopper Virgins’ Ad Is Great
Burger King has finally kicked off it’s slighted twisted take on the classic taste test this weekend. If you haven’t yet seen the set of 15-second teaser ads leading up to the launch, the campaign is a taste test with participants who’ve basically never heard of a hamburger. It features various isolated peoples from around the world, hence “Whopper Virgins”, to participate in the “world’s purest taste test”. They asked Thai Hmong tribesmen, Transylvanian farmers, and some Inuit from Greenland to choose either the Whopper or the McDonald’s Big Mac.
This is the latest bit of marketing from BK’s agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky. CP+B is also responsible for previous ads like the motivational spoof Dr. Angus, the Whopper Freakout day where customers were told Burger King no longer sold Whoppers, and all the ads featuring the exceedingly bizarre King. This ad seems like the most ambitious to date though. “We wanted to see how the Whopper would perform in a world that didn’t have ad or marketing awareness or any sentimental attachments” says Russ Klein, president of BK’s global marketing. Of course, even before the main ads came out, tons of people were offended, as people often are. Read on:
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December 8, 2008 2 Comments
Some Chicagoans Will Keep Warm and Fed Thanks To Kraft Foods This Holiday Season
Kraft Foods Stove Top brand will be pumping warm air and delicious stuffing into some the chilly bus stations around Chicago this month. Out of the 50 bus shelters getting Stove Top print ads, ten lucky shelters will get specialized Stove Top ads with temporary heating units in the ceilings. The company also plans to hand out samples of it’s new Stove Top Quick Cups instant stuffing in the streets of the windy city.
The new ads read, “Cold, provided by winter. Warmth, provided by Stove Top.” Apparently, this is the first time heated bus shelters have been used for advertising in the US. Why don’t they pump delicious stuffing smell in with the heat? Well, we all remember what happened with the GOT MILK? cookie smell campaign. They pumped in the delicious smell of cookies into various bus shelters around San Fransisco hoping that the smell would get people craving a glass of milk, but instead of making commuters get all hungry for cookies and milk, the snooty SanFransiscans complained. Only in San Fransisco could people complain about the scent of freshly baked cookies.
Anyway, check out a list of all the heated locations and the locations of the free samples:
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December 2, 2008 Comments Off
The Economist Uses Pizza Boxes To Encourage Students To “Get A World View”
The Economist is one of my top five favorite magazines, I read it regularly. I also live in the Philadelphia area and eat pizza quite often. So I’m excited about The Economist’s new advertising plan: they connected with over 20 pizzerias in the Greater Philadelphia area, most of them near college campuses or dorms, and supplied them with Economist-branded pizza boxes. Each box has a pie chart that connects pizza consumption with global economics and politics. They encourage people to “Get A World View”.
This kind of ambient advertising is always interesting. Publipizz, a maker of advertising pizza boxes, estimates that a box of pizza is looked at by 3 people for at least 8 minutes and results in an 80% memory retention rate. Plus, boxes with advertising on them are less expensive for pizzerias, which makes them more likely to join in.
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November 4, 2008 1 Comment
David Beckham Endorses Fishsticks
Hey ladies, do you want your kids to grow up big and strong like David Beckham? How about your husbands? Well, there’s now a food product heartily endorsed by the superstar, and it’s supposedly healthy and delicious.
David Beckham Brand fishsticks. Yes, fishsticks… actually they’re called “fish fingers” by the weirdos in the UK. Delicious and healthy fish fingers fortified with extra omega-3s, with Beckham on the cover.
Beckham has said: “As a Dad I know how hard it is to get kids to eat the right things. I also know as a footballer, how important it is to eat the right things to perform well, so I think the GO3 range is a great way to help families take some small steps to be fit and healthy at affordable prices.”
If you eat Beckfood Fishstickz, you’ll grow up and look like this:
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October 16, 2008 Comments Off
Hannah Montana Penis Candy – Marketing Mistake
So the Hannah Montana people wanted to sell some sort of Hannah Montana-related candy, great idea. She appeals to kids, kids love candy, it all works. But they should have at least looked in to the manufacturer of the generic “guitar” shaped candy before they got involved. At the very least, they could have mixed the colors up a bit. I mean, flesh pink?
September 30, 2008 3 Comments
KFC’s Formula for Success
Everyone knows that KFC uses a super secret blend of eleven herbs and spices to make its fried chicken ultra-delicious. KFC goes to great lengths to keep that formula secret. In fact, one company blends a formulation that represents part of the recipe while another spice company blends the remainder. And a final computer processing system is used to standardize the blending of the products to ensure neither company has the complete recipe.
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September 11, 2008 Comments Off