Ads of the Weird : Food and drink

Pepsi Max goes one better than ‘I’m good’

Allison Linn — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Pepsi Max, a diet cola marketed toward men, drew both cheers and jeers for its Super Bowl ad featuring guys getting involved in various violent accidents before proclaiming bravely, "I’m good."

To those in favor, the ad was classic slapstick. To those opposed, it was just stereotypical violence for violence’s sake.

Both those who liked and hated the Super Bowl ad might find more humor in another series of Pepsi Max ads, which feature American actors but are currently only running in Europe.

Pepsi (click image to view ad)

In one ad, a guy walks into a job interview, sits down and then, for no apparent reason, starts pretending that his would-be boss is beating him up.

He ends the charade by hurling himself into the waiting room, thus scaring off all the other applicants -- except his buddy, who eventually gets the job.

In another, a guy on a beach is attempting to ask a skeptical girl out when he is interrupted by what looks like a man being attacked by an octopus.

He heroically rescues the victim, gets the date and then limps off into the bushes -- where it’s revealed that his pals set up the fake rescue to impress the girl.

The "I’m good" ads struck us at too obvious and ham-handed to be truly funny. These European ads do a better job of using fake violence as a witty plot point.

Perhaps more importantly, the Pepsi Max drinkers in the European ads come off as smart pranksters plotting gags to help out their buddies. In short, they are the kind of guys many people would wish to be, and they have the kind of friends you’d like to have your back.

In the U.S. ad the guys come off as dolts who are either too dimwitted to avoid being beaned in the head, or are surrounded by friends who can’t seem to avoid maiming their buddies.

The octopus and job interview ads are set to expand into Asian markets, but Pepsi says it has no current plans to air them in the U.S. Click here and here to watch them.

Bad day? Del Taco recommends a wedgie

Allison Linn — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

A recent commercial for Del Taco shows your typical office drone standing in line staring at the woman behind the counter in a kind of creepy way.

It turns out he’s angry because Del Taco’s prices are so cheap he realizes that everyone else is ripping him off.

Del Taco’s solution? Send another hapless worker over and let the office drone give him a wedgie.

Del Taco (click image to view ad)

Believe it or not, there are actually tasteful ways to discuss wedgies in commercials – witness Hanes’ witty campaign for underwear guaranteed not to give you a wedgie.

In Del Taco’s hands, however, a wedgie is played for the kind of comic effect that might humor mean-spirited third graders.

What’s worse, the ad implies, albeit in a humorous way, that it’s perfectly OK to beat up on someone else to deal with frustration and anger -- regardless of whether that person has anything to do with why you’re angry.

In this case it is even more nonsensical because the guy on the receiving end of the wedgie works for the company that’s providing a good deal, not the companies that are at fault.

Fast food workers may not be receiving many literal wedgies these days, but we’re guessing they get their fair share of abuse, verbal and otherwise, as people take out their stress over the recession on the person behind the counter.

For Del Taco to play that up shows a disrespect for the company’s workers, since the humor is at their expense.

We’re guessing that won’t do much for employee morale, and we’re not sure how many tacos it’s going to sell, either.

Click here to view the ad.

Crooning about … Chicken McNuggets

Allison Linn — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

We’ve found plenty not to like about fast food commercials lately, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a new ad for McDonald’s that actually didn’t leave us feeling kind of queasy.

The commercial for Chicken McNuggets looks at first like a standard-issue video for your typical R&B song -- until you start listening closely to the lyrics.

Yes, the singer has that overly emotive, heartbroken look on his face, and yes, he’s making those goofy hand gestures as he sings about desperate, unrequited love. But is he craving a lover … or a piece of breaded, fried chicken?

McDonald's

The latter, it turns out.

The 60-second version of the commercial begins with a man awakening in the middle of the night to find that his significant other has snuck out of their majestic home on a rainy night to indulge in a mysterious mission.

What’s worse, when she finally returns, toting a McDonald’s bag, she’s not willing to share.

"Oh girl I know your secret," the singer croons. "You got that McNuggets loving/loving/It just ain’t fair/why can’t you share your love with me?"

(According to McDonald’s, the singer is played by Don Lee, but the song is sung by Lavish Mikell.)

The tongue-in-cheek tune ends with the earnest singer belting out "Girl you got a 10-piece/please don’t be stingy" while his female companion shoots him down.

Of course, some people might love (or hate) McDonald’s enough to take the song and its sentiment seriously. To us, however, it was a witty parody of more typical R&B fare, which manages to be entertaining even if you don’t like the style of music, or McDonald’s for that matter.

Click here to watch the long version, and click here to watch a shorter version of the ad.

Burger King’s "virgin" experiment proves socially awkward

Allison Linn — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

When Burger King decided to run a campaign called "Whopper Virgins," with the premise of doing a Whopper versus Big Mac taste test in rural international outposts, you can imagine what they were thinking: Controversy!

People will love it! People will hate it! People will debate it incessantly! It’ll be great!

Perhaps they should have found a way to make a little more interesting.

Burger King (click image for ad)

The ads feature people who live in such rural areas of the world that they have ostensibly never tried, or perhaps even heard of, a burger. After apparently being told to dress in their fanciest traditional outfits, they are trooped into a bland room and handed two burgers.

The results are exceeding awkward.

Footage on the company’s Web site shows the testers unsure how to eat the burger and yet keen not to be impolite. In the television ads, the subjects are seen taking huge bites of the sandwiches, but their responses appear muted: They point at the one they like and briefly confirm their choice.

If they had anything compelling to say about the experience of eating their first burger, you don’t see it in the spots. There’s certainly no evidence that they were converted to a life of fast food and are seeking franchise opportunities.

The online movie offers a little more insight, including one man admitting he prefers seal meat and a few people choosing the Big Mac, saying they have no preference or refusing to try a burger at all. But if there was an "a-ha" moment among the testers, we don’t see it.

Mostly, the ads and the online video come off as a Herculean effort to make something dramatic out of encounters that appear, at best, stilted. When the video reaches the point that they are discussing propane outlets extensively, you really get the sense that they are stretching for drama.

Also, while the company’s self-congratulatory press materials paint the experiment as an example of honesty and transparency, they don’t reveal the most basic piece of information: definitive results of their taste tests, such as how many people tried the burgers and the number of people who preferred each one.

The lack of concrete data raises the question of whether, overall, the Whopper was the favorite, or whether they just choose to feature the anecdotal stories of those that preferred the Whopper.

A few more facts – now that might have been interesting.

Click here to see the ad, or click here to watch the online video.

Arby’s is thinking phallic imagery

Allison Linn — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Sex does not sell everything. And one thing it really doesn’t sell very well is fast food.

The latest entrant in the surprisingly crowded "fast food as erotica" genre comes from Arby’s.

The chains’ recent ad for the chicken cordon bleu sandwich begins with a pudgy guy wearing sweats and white socks sitting on a bed, surrounded by pillows and candles.

Arby's (Click image for ad.)

"You know I’m only doing this for your birthday!" a woman calls out, before entering the room wearing an Arby’s uniform and carrying a tray of food.

"Wow," the man exclaims, "Me likey." And then, as if we didn’t already get the not-so-subtle hints, a cartoon version of the chain’s logo -- a long cowboy hat -- pops up above the guy’s head, accompanied by a little "boing" sound.

Suffice to say we’ll never look at the Arby’s logo the same way again, and we don’t mean that in a good way.

Instead of making us laugh -- or better yet -- crave an Arby’s sandwich, the ad left us feeling a little queasy. We’re guessing that’s not the response a company that sells food is going for.

Also, every time we saw the ad, we wanted to yell at the TV screen, "Hey, sandwich guy! Your wife/girlfriend went to all this trouble for your birthday and, what, you can’t even bother to lose the sweats and white socks ensemble for the occasion? Come on!"

We had a similar reaction to last year’s Dairy Queen commercial, which attempted to make food sexy by implying that its Blizzard dessert was created after a soft serve ice cream and a waffle cone had an amorous encounter.

Click here to view the ad.

Wal-Mart and Coke make music together

Allison Linn — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Wal-Mart commercials have definitely improved since the days of the tacky flying smiley face and uniformed employees, but let’s face it: The retailer’s ads are not usually the stuff of creative wonderment.

That’s one reason we were pleasantly surprised by a new holiday commercial from Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola.

The ad, currently playing in movie theaters and online, features a young, geeky guy wandering through his own holiday party with a reusable Wal-Mart tote bag, handing out bottles of Coke while singing a little ditty about his guests.

Wal-Mart (click image to play ad)

There’s a nice zeitgeist element to the ad, with its references to modern families ("my surprising cool stepmother/ and the two kids that she had/ before she even met my dad"), modern dating ("my best friend and his online date") and modern communication ("my MySpace friends/and Twitter list").

There’s also an element of completely G-rated romantic intrigue to add to the mix, when our hero wanders by: "the first girl that I ever kissed/you’re beautiful/I love you."

It’s a simple, feel-good ad that offers a bit of distraction from the much more worrisome realities many of us are facing these days. Yes, it’s a little cheesy, and no, it’s not at all realistic -- what twentysomething has such a huge house, for starters? -- but it’s still catchy in a cute, wholesome way.

We also appreciated that the companies resisted the temptation to do more than show the brands they are seeking to promote. After all, with the barrage of advertising we usually get from these two companies, we really don’t need one more reminder that Coke is a soda and Wal-Mart is a discounter.

Click here to view the ad. The mini-musical feel also reminded us of a similar, but much racier, ad for AMP Energy drinks that aired last spring.

Update: My colleague Gael Fashingbauer Cooper over at Test Pattern is lamenting that there aren't more good holiday commercials these days. Click here to see the post.

Dunkin' takes aim (again) at Starbucks

Allison Linn — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

With the presidential election just one week away, nothing seems to be getting Americans’ hearts racing like a new opinion poll. Perhaps wanting to get in on the action, Dunkin’ Donuts decided to commission a poll about its own high-stakes race: Dunkin’ Donuts coffee versus Starbucks coffee.

According to a commercial the donut chain made to go with its poll, the results show that: "In a national taste test, more hard-working Americans preferred the taste of Dunkin' Donuts over Starbucks."

The first question that springs to mind, of course, is: what criteria did they use, exactly, to find out whether these people were "hard-working"? And why do they have to be "hard-working" in order to judge coffee?

Dunkin' Donuts (Click image to watch ad)

We have to wonder if the reference is a jab at those non-hard-working, Chardonnay-sipping, brie-eating elites who would, naturally, prefer Starbucks' hoity-toity drinks over the basic, quality cup of Joe you can get at Dunkin' Donuts. That may be a good tactic for appealing to the base, but is it really going to get the undecideds?

The commercial follows a fictional white-coated researcher as she visits one fictional hard-working American after another, interrupting their job so they can try some coffee. (Sadly, no plumber is shown drinking the Joe.) All of these faux workers like Dunkin’s coffee better, of course.

We’ve been highly amused by the increasingly competitive coffee wars, which has everyone from McDonald’s to Krispy Kreme vying to give you the best caffeine buzz. We’ve also been fans of some of Dunkin’s other attempts to take on Starbucks by making fun of its drink names and highfalutin image.

But this ad falls short of the mark.

For one thing, polls commissioned by a company itself are bound to draw a little skepticism, even when, as here, the poll is conducted by independent researchers. It doesn’t help that the ad features fake researchers and taste testers, and yet doesn’t take the tack far enough with something truly offbeat or funny. We might have been more convinced by footage of real people trying the coffee.

For another, this is a story that we’ve heard before, when Consumer Reports found that tasters preferred McDonald’s coffee to Starbucks. As the political pundits would say, maybe Dunkin’ needs to find its own narrative.

Click here to watch the ad.

Dentyne gets in your face

Allison Linn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

In this era of instant electronic communication, do you really ever actually need to talk with, much less actually see, your friends? Isn’t it much easier just to text them, trade voice mails or check their status updates on Facebook?

Dentyne takes that attitude to task in a new series of print and television ads that poke fun at technology terms by showing their real-person equivalent.

Two friends whispering to each other? That’s "voicemail."

Dentyne (Click image to view the ad)

A group of soccer players celebrating a goal? "Friend request accepted."

A romantic kiss? They call that "the original instant message."

Dentyne’s "Make Face Time" campaign isn’t the first to come up with the idea of putting the human back in human contact, but an idea doesn’t need to be original if it is executed well.

The ads get your attention with their whimsical soundtrack, joyous little snippets of the good things in life and clever pairings of words and actions.

Dentyne also resists the temptation to plaster its print and television ads with too much information, instead sticking to simple phrases and images. In order words, it gets in your face by not being too in-your-face.

What’s more Dentyne actually promotes the product it’s selling. An upside to electronic communication is certainly that it can be done in one’s pajamas, and before brushing one’s teeth, but most of us appreciate a whiff of fresh breath before making a human connection.

Click here to watch the ad, or click here to see the whole campaign on the Web.

Snickers doesn't make everyone snicker

Allison Linn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:24:00 GMT

The makers of Snickers are pulling an ad after it failed to get laughs among gay rights activists who called it homophobic, according to an Associated Press report.

In the commercial, a man is speed-walking down the street when 1980s icon Mr. T comes barreling around the corner, firing candy bars at him and calling him a "disgrace to the man race."

The ad, which aired in the United Kingdom, ends with the tagline "get some nuts."

snickers.com

The AP says Mars Inc., which makes the candy bars, meant the ad to be funny, not offensive, and that's why they decided to pull it. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation said the ad used stereotypes of gay men.

Readers may recall that this is actually the second time Mars has pulled a Snickers ad because of accusations that it was homophobic. In 2007, a Super Bowl ad featuring two men accidentally kissing over a Snickers bar was yanked after similar complaints.

Click here to hear what MSNBC cable has to say about the latest controversy, or click here to watch the ad.

Update: Some readers noticed that a previous link to the ad had stopped working. We've posted an updated version.

Random acts of meanness

Allison Linn — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT

We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about how young people in this country want to feel inspired. The makers of Cheetos apparently think that they want to be inspired to do mean things to other people.

The company’s ad campaign, dubbed Orange Underground, consists of a series of commercials in which a cartoon Cheetos mascot goads people to use the orange squiggly snack for evil.

In one commercial, an office worker passes by the desk of a "neat freak," and smashes Cheetos into his computer and ear phones. In another, a woman upset by another patron at a Laundromat drops some Cheetos into her load of whites. In yet another, a woman sticks Cheetos up the nose of a snoring seatmate on an airplane.

Cheetos

There are lots of examples of slightly malevolent high jinks being used for legitimate laughs, but usually those jokes work because the viewer – and even the target – knows they are meant to be in good fun. These commercials show people being so blatantly mean, and with little or no provocation, that it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

What’s more, the random acts of meanness aren’t even original. Messing up someone’s desk? Putting something up someone’s nose? It sounds like the type of things a third grader would come up with.

The makers of Cheetos apparently also thought it would be funny if the public engaged in similar pranks. A Web site offers tips for how to use Cheetos to spread some real-life badwill, as part of a campaign dubbed "Random Acts of Cheetos." Suggestions include dumping Cheetos in your boss’s car and making "itching powder" out of Cheetos and other ingredients. Instead of coming off as edgy and funny, the whole thing smacks of middle-aged marketers trying too hard to appeal to the "Grand Theft Auto" demographic.

Another link encourages people to post their own Cheetos-related videos, which some users have done. Sure, that makes for free publicity, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

Click here to go to the site and see the ads.