While scrolling through blog posts on “Drew’s Marketing Minute”, I came across one regarding one of my favorite things in this world: Football.

The post was commenting two commercials that were featured in the 2013 Super Bowl Ads:

1) The Budweiser Spot – The Clydesdale’s: “Brotherhood”

2) The Jeep Spot: “Whole Again”

Drew McLellan commented on the fact that although both ads were tear jerkers and successfully made every viewer call their parents to say “I love you”, they were not effective in all the right ways.

The fact that neither commercial brought up any facts about the products themselves does not make the viewer any more inclined to purchase their product over another competitors. Yes, it is touching, but it is enough?

This post brought up another commercial to my mind, one which was also voted the best Superbowl Ad one year previous to these (2012).

Here is Chrysler’s commercial “Halftime in America”:

Chrysler was extremely effective in hitting several parts of the heart. To start, getting Clint Eastwood, arguably one of the most respected and loved American icons to narrate was clutch. Second, showing several middle class families across the country living day-to-day during economic uncertainty made an affective connection to the viewers. Finally, creating a bridge between the preparation needed to motivate a team to win the second half of a football game with the motivation to bring the great country of the United States of America back to the strong times was truly inspiring.

Although all these tactics were utilized perfectly, did the marketing sector of Chrysler really do their job? Aren’t the point of commercials to prove why your product is better than everyone else’s? What the commercial did for me was remind me that Chrysler’s are American-made vehicles. Although that is not a bad tactic to use, what makes these American-made cars better than ones made in Japan? If I’m a struggling American, I’m going to purchase a vehicle that  is reliable, has great MPG, and can be purchased at an affordable price. None of these are even mentioned in the commercial!

Although I salute Chrysler for making an inspirational commercial, if their goal was to increase the sales of their vehicles, they may need to stop “talking the talk and start walking” (if you will).

Upon reading a post from “Nadia Gunderson’s COMM 260 Blog” discussing Lululemon “maning up” and apologizing to what could possibly be false advertisement, it got me thinking of other companies who may have not been so courageous.

Since 2008, Dannon has been promoting their Activia line of yogurts as being “clinically” and “scientifically” proven to regulate digestion and boost immune systems. By promoting the health benefits and using liked and relatable women such as Jamie Lee Curtis in their advertisements, Dannon has been extremely successful with the Activia line.

Until 2010.

Dannon was sued for making false claims that the ingredients in their yogurt strengthens the immune system and helps digestion. The punishment: paying consumers up to $45 million in damages and removing words on their labels and advertisement such as “clinically”, “scientifically”, and “immunity”.

The court made their decision based on the lack of evidence Dannon has on its yogurts health benefits. Although they say that the probiotic bacteria really works to regulate the digestive system, scientists have concluded that not enough research has been done to conclude that there is a correlation.

Despite their lack of evidence, Dannon stood by their products and did not take fault, claiming they settled the lawsuit to “avoid the cost and distraction of litigation”.

Like Nadia mentioned in her post, I believe that the way a company responds to situations like this is much more informative and insightful than the mistake itself. As for Dannon, they took the easy route out. By brushing off their mistakes and refusing to take full responsibility of their errors, it speaks to the type of company they really are.

Seems like Dannon’s yogurt also lacks the health benefit of growing a backbone.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/dannon-settles-lawsuit/story?id=9950269