Posts Tagged ‘ads’

Advertising lessons 101

Posted: March 30, 2014 in Business Management, Popular Culture et al
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One: do not put your ads where people can reach them.

Two: Never underestimate the genius of the common man.

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Beer, beer, and more beer – one man’s marketing obsession

Posted: May 12, 2013 in Business Management, Popular Culture et al
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This ad was printed in 1937. The fancy bottle was the “Steinie.” It was specially made this way so it easy to handle and didn’t take up space in the fridge or icebox. In an interesting bit of trivia (and according to another Schlitz print ad), the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company pioneered the idea of bottling its beer in brown bottles. This was done to keep unwanted light out and keep the freshness of the beer in. The good old days when "a truth well told" was at the core of advertising.

An ad from 1937. The fancy bottle was the “Steinie.” It was specially made this way so it easy to handle and didn’t take up space in the fridge or icebox. In an interesting bit of trivia (and according to another Schlitz print ad), the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company pioneered the idea of bottling its beer in brown bottles. This was done to keep unwanted light out and keep the freshness of the beer in. The good old days when “a truth well told” was at the core of advertising.

Case histories of head-butting brand versus brand challenges are always interesting to advertising and marketing tragics like me … read: tired creaky-jointed ad guy who is old enough to watch Mad Men and wonder “Why are they making a movie of my life? More to the point, why aren’t I getting a royalty? I was that soldier!” … but also to most of you, it appears.

But really: who would spend five long, detailed blogs writing up the story of the beer wars in the United States, focused on the brand he loves, Schlitz and it’s everlasting battle with the likes of Budweiser?

Well, my mate Bill, would.

And it’s a good read, too, packed with heaps to learn for marketing managers and ad agency people and consultants and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, including avoiding the hubris that also led icon brands like Coke and Fosters-CUB to change the formulas of their brown fizzy water and Victoria Bitter respectively .

http://billsbrainworks.com/beer-wars-the-birth-of-the-brands/

Don’t say I never give you the good stuff.

If Schlitz want to win the beer wars again – and it would be so nice if they could, because I remember drinking it appreciatively when there was only one American burger bar in the whole of the English town I lived in – yes, I go that far back – which was called, with delicious homage to the States “Alice’s Restaurant” – and yes it was actually run by a bird called Alice – well, if Schlitz need a hand, I reckon they should call Bill in for a chat.

What have they got to lose? If passion equates to likely success, Bill’s their man.

Related articles

Hilarious French condom ad. (And I try and make some serious points.)

Posted: November 10, 2011 in Political musings, Popular Culture et al
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Unless you are completely humourless, or a fundamentalist religious fanatic of some persuasion, have a long, hard look at this. It’s clever, funny, (in that delightfully witty way that the Europeans do so well), and it is strategically clever and brilliantly well executed.

I have spent some of my working life addressing so-called social advocacy issues, not to mention an active involvement (usually, although not exclusively, behind the scenes) in politics and current affairs. In that time, I have urged countless bureaucrats and politicians to treat the public with intellectual respect, and to use both humour and frankness to convey vital public health messages. Which is why I applaud this ad so much and desire it to have as wide as possible an audience.

I am not sure of its provenance, although given its length I suspect it is viral in nature, if you will forgive the obvious pun. Personally I would run it on mainstream TV in every country in the world.

Let’s just sanity check why this ad is so brilliant.

1) It’s set in a toilet. Why is that clever? Answer: it’s where many young people actually get access to condoms. It’s also (parents of teenagers cover your ears here) where many have their first sexual experience, and not always a protected sexual experience, despite the instant availability of condoms in the location. Once seen, this ad is highly memorable, and will be remembered by the audience at the point of impact, if you will again forgive the pun.

2) It is clearly aimed primarily at young men, who are the sex most likely to try to achieve sexual penetration without a condom. It sells them two messages – first, you are likely to get rejected without offering to wear a condom, (and how brilliantly it conveys the dejection caused by sexual rejection), and secondly the corollary to that message, ie you are more likely to get laid if you do.

In sending this message, it also empowers women to insist.

3) It is aimed at the heterosexual community, the great “unspoken about” marketplace for AIDS education in the western world in particular, and very relevant in Africa and Asia where heterosexual infections outnumber homosexual. In the West, there are a small but significant number of heterosexual infections that occur every year, savaging people’s mental health, their physical wellbeing, and their lives forever after.

As the recipients of penetration, whether vaginal or anal, it is women who are at risk more than men. In sending these messages, the ad is extremely socially responsible.

Young people are going to have sex whatever their elders and betters think. And no, condoms do not make sex “safe”. But they make it a hell of a lot safer.

So bravo, mes amis. And may this ad be seen far and wide, especially in the United States, where the number of unwanted pregnancies, and resulting abortions, are a public health scandal. Oh yes, did I mention that condoms can stop women getting pregnant? Sometimes from their very first, fumbling, uncertain moment of sexual intercourse? How often we forget that simple point.

I urge you to share this ad with your personal network.