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.
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.