Badvertising

Coke Zero- which I have to admit I am a fan of- used a campaign in Australia that differed from the campaigns elsewhere by making it more about the everyday person trying to live a carefree lifestyle. Now, the idea behind the campaign is a solid one: consumers respond well to campaigns that are tailored personally to them, but Coke's method was something of a misstep in my book. The Australia campaign was based solely on deception- fooling the average person into thinking that other average people were being positively backed up by Coke Zero, which in reality turned out to be just flat out lies. Coke faked the situation, and in North America or Europe, I doubt the campaign would be received well. Sure, it worked in Australia because, let's face it, there's a lot of backwards thinking in their advertising, but blatant deception doesn't sit well with North America and Europe (at least in advertising).

Whereas I understand where Coke Zero is coming from- word of mouth via the blogosphere and the general public is always the best way for publicity to travel fast- but I think that they were slightly unethical to make the hubbub themselves. The fuel of the advertising industry runs on word of mouth, and it's up to the agencies to make a good enough campaign that people do spread the word. If advertising agencies and brands resort to creating their own synthetic "word of mouth", what's even the point? It seems to me as if their rendering their own jobs obsolete.

Other companies have had their fair share of blunders, but one that stands out to me is Burger King, who has had so many bad marketing campaigns since 2008 we can almost feel bad for them. A notable strategy they've used on multiple occasions (bafflingly enough) was the "king" campaign in which they used their "mascot" as the poster boy for their products, which turned out to be bad decision upon bad decision. The "king" was included in a number of commercials run in bad taste such as "wake up with the king" or more notoriously, "Square Butts," which was a music video involving the king, spongebob squarepants, and butts set to Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Big Butts." It only takes a second to be horrified by the whole ordeal.

Sales were down roughly 6% in 2011's first quarter because of the negative press Burger King was getting, and even those who weren't offended by their variety of advertisements were generally creeped out by the mascot. The "king" campaign was finally put to rest in August of 2011, and we can all be grateful for it.