Month: February 2011

My friend Kristel Co So, wrote a great blog post on February 3rd targeting commercials that tickle our funny bone and their impact. It was aptly titled “Bottoms up! for Heineken’s “Walk-in Fridge” Commercial”

While reading her blog, I could only think of the most memorable commercial I have ever seen. I was living in England in 1999 when the commercial first aired. It is quite possibly the funniest commercial I have ever seen. The commercial advertises Sweden’s most popular daily at that time, Expressen.

It features two middle aged guys sitting next to each other in a sauna. The shot only shows them above their shoulders and one of them tries to surreptitiously glance somewhere that is dangerously low between the other’s legs. When you see the commercial and figure out what he’s looking at, it turns out to be hilarious.

As a young soccer player, our entire team shared a gym and anyone caught naked would be ragged about their “wee-wee.” At that time, this advertisement made perfect sense and appealed to little me. While at the same time, I remember how the rest of my family, parents, grandparents, and cousins would also all tear up laughing while watching this commercial.

The commercial is very simple and manages to catch your attention easily. The fact that it manages to be funny without a single word being said makes it relevant across all cultures. I agree with Kristel about the impact of funny commercials and how they remain etched in our mind. I picked up my first newspaper after watching the commercial and every time I read one, I think of it.

Yes, I did make my father buy Expressen when we went to Sweden!

It can be seen here.

In one of my all time favorite movies, Fight Club, Tyler Durden(Brad Pitt) talks about the impact that marketing has had on us. He talks about how the success of marketing and the American Capitalist Society has been achieved by preying on people. Making us believe that certain luxuries are actually necessary. So great is the impact of marketing that we always end up buying stuff we don’t need. What Gen Y views as conveniences are luxuries that are marketed so successfully that we cannot imagine life without them. Brands are the order of the day. Rather than who you are, it is what you own that defines you.

For example, do we really need a cellphone? All we really need a phone for is making calls and there are ample payphones on every block. Even if we are somehow able to rationalize the need for a cellphone wouldn’t it be enough to have something functional rather than a smartphone?

How many of us really need a car? There’s always public transit, why a gas-guzzling Hummer over a Civic? Why a new car over a recycled(used one)? How many of us really need branded clothes? Or Branded coffee?

Or Branded anything? We all fall prey to marketing.  And we need to re-think what we buy.

The movie really influenced my purchasing decisions. While making any purchases it is necessary to really evaluate, will I really need this? Am I going to use it? Is we get more environmentally conscious I feel it is important for us to think not only about the way the product was purchased but also what happens to it once we want to dispose it off

Move over celebrities who endorse products! Although around for quite some time now, I feel that celebrities moving towards creating their own brands is the next step in the celebrity marketing world.

The media is flooded with reports another celebrity launching something almost every other week. While browsing newspapers today, I read about Halle Berry’s new perfume, and became curious. I looked up about it online. Within the past 3 days, two celebrities, Halle Berry and Sofie Vergara(of Modern Town) announced their own line of products. Does launching celebrity brands really work? Let’s try to analyze with a few examples

It all started with tennis player Jean Rene Lacoste who established the green crocodile that adorns most of our polos today.

As more and more brands start using celebrities to endorse products and we get habituated to them, some very smart celebrities(and firms) are teaming up with celebrities to create a line of products or even celebrity owned brands. Paris Hilton is the first one that comes to mind. Although not famous for anything really she started off with her own bottle of perfume from Parlux Fragrances which raised Parlux’s sales by 47%. Parlux followed it up with several fragrances bearing Paris’ name. Of course she now has her own line of hair extensions, footwear, fashion, and accessories line. At one point of time, she even had her name on certain nightclubs.

Finally, another example is former Spice Girl, Victoria (Adams) Beckham who has her own line of clothing(of which her denims are the most famous) and perfumes which is immensely successful.

So to conclude, I do agree that celebrity brands work extremely well. Whether it’s a successful athlete, a moderately successful pop star or a not so successful heiress. Some clever marketing can make all the difference.