While looking at my classmates’ blogs, Steven Tanaka’s post regarding the Will Ferrell Superbowl commercial stood out to me amongst all others.

The commercial itself is painfully funny to watch: you can’t help but cringe however it does make you laugh due to how irrelevant it’s content is relative to the product they are trying to promote. I agree with Steven that this commercial is a big psychological factor in our attitude towards Old Milwaukee, and how most people would not want to associate themselves with the “publicly affectionate couple” reference group. It seems illogical how this ad would make an individual want to go buy that beer brand. Personally I would be scared to drink it after that type of commercial.

However it is really interesting to analyse this marketing approach done by Old Milwaukee. It is clear that they are trying to associate drinking Old Milwaukee beer with the personality and lifestyle of Will Ferrell. I would assume this is targeting the younger generation, which revolves around cool and unique trends. The neat thing about this ad is the way the camera zooms out and the Old Milwaukee beer captures the attention of the person recording it more than Will Ferrell and the Asian lady. This is trying to portray the degree to which their beer stands out compared to anything unusual. Lastly it is also a commercial with virtually zero costs trying to achieve viral marketing, which makes it a low risk tactic.

Over the weekend I read an interesting blog post regarding the ethical dilemma in marketing baby products to new mothers at the hospital. According to the article in many  US hospitals the mothers and mothers-to-be receive free formula samples from their healthcare providers. This actually results in an increase in baby product sales due to mothers’ loyalty to the brand they already had experience with. These samples are often  the most expensive ones on the market, therefore resulting in huge costs for the parents after child’s birth if continued to be used. It poses an issue since this product marketing is done at a time when mothers are most vulnerable, and listen most to advice from their physicians and the hospital to ensure health of their child.

Overall I agree with this article about the timing of the product promotion. It may seem like a good gesture from the healthcare provider, but it’s true intent is to initiate a relationship between the product and the mothers in order to boost sales. This could also raise baby’s health issues due to over-excessive use of baby formulas. On the other hand it is difficult to label this as “unethical marketing” since these baby formulas are not provided directly by the patient’s physicians, and are merely free “convenience” samples. Therefore the factor of personal responsibility is also important to consider as we could point out that it is the mother’s responsibilities to make decisions regarding whether or not to use these products.

Work Cited:

“Formula Marketing in Hospitals: Ethical or Unethical? – Healthy Start Coalition of Orange County.” Healthy Start Coalition of Orange County – Healthy Start Coalition of Orange County: Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://www.healthystartorange.org/1/post/2012/05/formula-marketing-in-hospitals-ethical-or-unethical.html>.