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MARKETING

Unethical Marketing: Heineken Vs Bavaria

In the last mini-case, we briefly discussed ambush marketing, and the ethical issues behind those practices. It reminded me of two Youtube videos I came across a while ago. bavaria-beer-spoofThe first one was the walk-in closet advertisement for Heineken, and the second is a parody of the first (except with alternate ending) that advertised Bavaria (another brand of beer). When the Heineken commercial was first aired, people responded well to it. A few months after, Bavaria, Heineken’s competitor, responded by using the wide exposure of the Heineken commercial to its advantage by airing a parody of the first. After conducting some research, I found that Heineken and Bavaria do not operate under the same parent company, which means the management of Heineken probably were not too pleased by Bavaria’s parody. Although Bavaria did not portray Heineken negatively in their marketing video, the consumers who have watched Heineken’s original video would see Bavaria as superior. Heineken-Grolsch-BavariaBavaria leveraged the fame of their competitor’s successful advertising campaign to their advantage, and bypassed the anti-negative advertising laws to put down their competitor. I believe Bavaria’s method of advertising is very clever, but unethical.

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