Catherine Guan's Blog

Those were the kisses that’s gotten people talking. No, it wasn’t on the big screen during a sweeping romance. Nor, for that matter was it on the grainy pages of a tabloid.  The Italian fashion company Benetton recently released a  controversial “Unhate Campaign,” consisting of various political and religious leaders locking lips. The campaign is composed of series of advertisements that includes, among others, images of Obama kissing Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Germany’s Angela Merkel kissing France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.

For a advertisement campaign that relied on traditional channels, like print publications and billboards, Benetton enjoyed enormous success. As Drew’s Marketing Minute pointed out, marketers shouldn’t dismiss traditional platforms quite yet. These simple, but jarring images, were more effective at attracting audiences than many elaborate digital advertisements.

While the campaign’s distribution strategy was impeccable, the ethics of Unhate is another matter.  It’s hard to find fault with a message promoting to undo the hatred between people of different race, orientation and creed. However, the link between compassion and the clothing manufacturer is strenuous at best. Does Benetton really want to ignite an authentic discussion or do they just want to sell more v-necks?  The campaign seems too calculated.

Benetton must have known they were playing a high risk hand when they unveiled the image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. The resulting furor of the Vatican has forced them to pull it. It’s now up to their PR team to prove that all publicity is indeed good publicity, that the increased interest will offset the loss of consumers deterred by these smooches. Benetton is playing a dangerous game.

Devotees of video games and tech toys have long used fan art to give expression to their love.  Cultivating customer equity with brand experiences, or “lovemarks”, consumers strongly identify with and are attached to their favorite brands.  Tributes such as these are not exclusive to geekdom.

As reported by AdFreak, the team at sports comedy site Tauntr took fan art to a new height with a mash up of their favorite TV shows with their favorite sneakers, Chuck Taylor All Stars. A personal favorite is Tauntr’s ode to the AMC smash hit, The Walking Dead.

They also transposed the likeness of Breaking Bad’s Heisenberg and a bloody Dexter onto the canvas of Converse.

Having been amused and awed by great fan art, this is the first time I have wanted to possess one this badly. Why was this combination particular potent? A recent blog by Heidi provided fantastic insight on this topic.  She pointed out that for celebrity endorsements to be successful, it must be the right person for the right product. Isn’t this the secret to success for all co-branding efforts?

Whether it be the personal brand of a celebrity or a pair of Chucks,  its personality must be compatible with and highlights an attractive aspect of the product’s brand. The iconoclastic reputation of Converse sneakers is a too perfect match for the antiheros of The Walking Dead and of the other shows featured in Tauntr’s collection.

What a wonderful opportunity for brand extension! Really hope someone at AMC’s product licensing division will pick this up, because all I want for Christmas is a pair of Walking Dead Chucks.

Setting the blogosphere ablaze, the passing of Steve Jobs seems to have resonated Apple evangelists and many besides.  As the tributes flow in, the man and his legacy are the subject of furious debate.

According to Andrew Potter, Ottawa Citizen, “for all his success as a business executive, Jobs’ most enduring legacy is not as a corporate but as a cultural visionary”.  Indeed, Job’s greatest creation is arguably, neither the iPod, nor the iPad, but Apple’s brand.

Targeting the contemporary creative class, Steve Jobs has created a brand synonymous with networked independence and stylish non-conformity. Despite being a gargantuan corporation, the Apple somehow positions itself as a defiant rebel against the corporate world.

In her blog, Robyn marveled about Apple’s consumer generated marketing, made possible by devoted fans. More than its sleek design and cutting-edge technology, it is this distinctive brand identity that has inspired such fervent loyalty.

The “Get a Mac” campaign with Justin Long made pop cultural splashes quite recently, but it was the watershed “1984” commercial that best encapsulates the Apple positioning strategy.

Airing once during the Super Bowl XVIII, “1984” introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the first time. Directed by Ridley Scott, the commercial’s hammer-heaving heroine was used to represent the coming of the Macintosh as a means of saving humanity from Orwell’s Big Brother, a not so subtle reference to IBM. Thanks to the Apple Computer Corporation, we are assured, the year 1984 will not be like the book 1984.

Ever since, the brand has stood as the definitive rebel sell: “the individualized resistance of political authoritarianism and cultural conformity through the adoption of non-standard consumer goods’.

Here’s to you, Steve Jobs.