Garfield's Ad Review
If Miracle Whip Is Rebellious to You, You May Be a Douche Bag
Ad Holds Up Sandwich Spread as the Che Guevara of Condiments
Due to the baseball playoffs, we've accidentally seen a lot of TV commercials and we offer these thoughts:
1. The lady in the Symbicort asthma-inhaler commercial has a nice set of lungs. Literally. The rest of her is in silhouette, but her lungs light up, E.T.-ishly (perhaps to distract you from the "asthma-related death" disclaimer). Still, we can't look away. Yikes.
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Title:
We Will Not Tone It Down Marketer: Miracle Whip  Agency: McGarryBowen |
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| A badge of defiance? Hardly. |
3. The "All you need is love" spots are irresistible. The female breakdancer is fabulous. And the fashion designer does more good acting in six wordless onscreen seconds than Al Pacino has since the Clinton administration. But, in terms of fulfilling your creative dreams, BlackBerry is relevant ... how? Sort of preposterous -- albeit, on the weekend preposterometer tally, by no means the champ. For we have witnessed ...
4. ... something that had inexplicably eluded us for months. It's an anthem. A manifesto. A generational declaration of defiance. Some excerpts:
"We will not be quiet!"
"We will not try to blend in, disappear in the background, play second fiddle!"
"We're not like the others, we won't ever try to be!"
"And we will not tone it down."
Whoa! Attitude! You've seen this sort of thing before, from such varied advertisers as Nintendo, Nike, the U.S. Army, Camel filters, Stroh's beer and Dr Pepper, all trying to flatter their prospects into imagining themselves as a breed apart, heroic iconoclasts who find the ultimate expression of their singular boldness in, you know, a mass-produced product.
Manufactured goods also like to lay claim to our highest earthly aspirations. This we've learned from such great spirit guides as Lincoln-Mercury, Levis, Johnnie Walker, Gatorade and Brother, the Dalai Lama of color printers. Of course, if you think a printer or a jug of sugar water or a smartphone or even a bloated luxury car is inspiring, then you are what we in journalism call "a douche bag."
Yet, as the Marlboro cowboy has demonstrated for about 50 years, this approach can be phenomenally successful. You'd think there'd be a backlash for marketers who think you're such a douche bag that you can fall for this malarkey, but au contraire. Like we said: Marlboro, Nike, the old Beetle ... it works, and from this we can conclude only one thing:
There are a lot of total douche bags out there, douche bags so douche-baggy they don't even realize they are treated like douche bags by the very brands they think are cool.
But now we as American face the ultimate insult to our self respect, via the "We will not be quiet" anthem sampled above. Because the advertiser is ...
... Miracle Whip.
That is correct, the salad dressing/sandwich spread/middle finger to the Man.
Or at least to the mayonnaise.
The commercial is filled with attractive but slightly grungy young people of no mind to accept mere mayo, because obviously mayo is ordinary. Mayo is establishment. Mayo is surrender. Whereas Miracle Whip is Che Guevara in a jar.
Was this conceived during 'shroom day at McGarryBowen?
See, in non-psychedelic reality, Miracle Whip is not a badge of defiance but rather the quintessence of middle-American déclassé, the turquoise pants suit of condiments. To assert the opposite is just a slap at our collective intellects, our collective honor, our collective non-douche-baggery.
If this succeeds, ladies and gentlemen, we do indeed surrender. If Miracle Whip is cool, the terrorists win.
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Ok, so you know you're a D Bag if you just said, "what?" or you think this is a new campaign.
That's because it has been around in Gen Y circles since at least early summer. Mainly off TV, where Gen Y spends less time than other generations, but it's been out there.
In the category, the approach is different, but more importantly is designed to appeal to Gen Y, the largest generation in history, now out on their owning forming their purchase behaviors, and it is also designed for families with older kids still in the home.
By the way, have you seen how tried and true brands like State Farm and others are approaching Gen Y?
Rodney Mason, CMO
www.moosylvania.com
www.twitter.com/rodmoose
I saw the ad last week and had to do a double take--could it be true that everything I ever believed about Miracle Whip was false (bland, fake, unnatural, artery clogging) or is it the opposite, that everything I believe about advertising is true (condescending lies from hucksters)? Either way, more desperate attempts to differentiate a packaged good via emotion versus actual product attributes.
To your first three points:
1.) While the lungs in Symbicort's commercials are "scary," asthma patients are probably riveted to the image and eager to talk with their physicians about the product;
2.) The commercial with the man talking with his reflection about Viagra, though relatively poorly done, is better than the absurd "Viva Viagra" campaign or the even more absurd "bathtubs in backyard" icon used by Cialis;
3.) Whatever Blackberry spent for the rights to "All You Need Is Love" and then for production and airtime should have gone to feeding the poor, the cause Sarah Silverman espoused in the comedy video you featured last week.
As for Miracle Whip's anthem, I give them lots of credit for attempting to make a seemingly me-too product singular. It's not just attitude (the track, the images, the supers presumably written by hand with Miracle Whip). It's also a reason why that you failed to mention in your review - that Miracle Whip has its "own mixed up blend of one of a kind spices."
Will Miracle Whip's commercial make it "cool"? Probably not. But it'll definitely sell a few more jars of the stuff, for the simple reason that it'll take it out of the dull, boring condiment category.
(By the way, there's another recent McGarryBowen commercial - for Droid - that's also a stand-out. All in all, if 'shrooms is the magic ingredient powering the agency's newfound creativity, more agencies should consider sending contingents out into the forest for their own supply.)
Gen Y should be insulted - by Miracle Whip - and by your implication that, just because the brand is targeting them, they might be receptive to this nonsense. "Hey, look, we're talking to the young people - with their hip lingo!"
Like "douche bag."
"Douche bag" is so overused now, I expect to hear it in the next MIracle Whip commercial.
And now they blatantly refuse to tone it down? Maybe I'm just too mayo, but these rooftop miracle whip parties are going to change everything. They have guitars! And they're acting "crazy!" Where does it end?
http://thebrowntweedsociety.com/2009/08/13/2123/
As for Blackberry, the creative team did an Apple spot.
Listen, the issue here is that everyone is acting as if there is one strategic position, and that is "ever-so-cool." So, every brand does the same spot.
You actually foment this by rating crap like Miracle Whip as highly as you have.
As an expat marketing researcher visiting the US only 2-3 times yearly, I have the opportunity to perceive, without gradual habituation, the "grossification" of American communication. I'm open to suggestions of a better term. Vulgarization is so passé.
Opinion formers developed the knack of converting any gross word, unworthy of inclusion in any dictionary, into a fad.
Now I'll open an online dictionary...is there a K in that word now?...to see whether douche bag has become acceptable for use in business letters.
Whatever...
rodney, usually you have some insightful things to say, this time you're a d-bag. gen y, get it they're big, they're young, they like everything to be different, they're going to change the world. just like the baby boomers and every other generation before them. last time i checked people like glowing rectangles. make things for glowing rectangles, and sometimes they like paper, like when you're in the bathroom or on a plane. oh yeah that glowing rectangle called the phone, make sure we get that too. oh wait, they're social and they really want to see this ad when they're facebooking. oh yeah it's great. maybe they want to slather it all over themselves. now that would be funny. maybe slather it on as a way to stain so-called authority figures. yeah slather, don't tone it down
bob good job here
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252726/october-15-2009/the-mayo-lution-will-not-be-televised
Maybe if Kraft made a MW bong (watch the clip closely), the brand would really connect with GenY. Long live mayo!
And how the hell did AXE get away with it? They're in a product category as mundane as they come, and yet they've been able to establish something of an antibrand, a "soap for partyboys" as it were. Is it unreasonable to think that Miracle Whip couldn't do the same? Maybe creating a brand extension is the answer, starting from scratch the way AXE did. Fiery Chipotle Whip, anybody?
@brianmcmath
and yep, tankboy, that's how most would write it. i guess the older folks just can't seem to get the usage of douchebag right (or any slang, really) when they're ripping other older folks for being uncreative douchebags (or "douche bags" for you old folks). next time you want to be clever bob, just write dbag. we'll know what you mean.
On the subject of "ripping," I simply observe once again that when I do my ripping, it is with my name and affiliation. Anonymous rips are sad displays of cowardice.
Bob Garfield
Seems like if a product is targeted to women, the folks who have posted comments here are more comfortable with passive, dumbed-down messages that play to 1950's stereotypes. I mean seriously, what kind of TOTAL MORON cares about what food she buys? It's not like it's as important as, say, an ipod app. It's not worth the same loyalty and consideration as an overpriced pair of running shoes. Or condoms. Or light beer.
Miracle Whip is trying to speak to women, young and older, with energy, creativity and humor. And I wish more food manufacturers would do the same.
Mary Lorson
In our house growing up in the late 60's/70's - like good, douchebag consumers, we always bought into brand wars. Hershey's vs. Nestle's, Pepsi Vs. Coke, etc. And we had a situation where my family used Helmann's Mayo and my Grandparents (my Dad's parents) used Miracle Whip INSTEAD of mayo. It was indeed a point of contention because as a boy I wouldn't eat my Grandmother's tuna salad because she inexplicably prepared it with Miracle Whip instead of mayo. It tasted like crap, frankly.
Now, my Mom was the only intelligent, independent thinker in all of this. Her contention was that it's an apples and oranges thing. She said often, and I agree, that just because they're both white - we shouldn't be comparing the two. At the time, Miracle Whip was billed as "Salad Dressing" and that's really what it is. Kraft makes their own brand of regular Mayo and it is similar to Hellmann's. And they're both similar to Ken's etc. But Miracle Whip, with its spicy tiny aphids of Cayenne or whatever was never meant to be a substitute for Mayo. Less eggs, more oil, more spices, the whipped aspect etc.
Positioning MW against mayo is a stupid idea. Like positioning A-1 against ketchup or Hot Sauce against Mustard. These are all necessary condiments that are best used for different applications. I like them both, for their very differences. But you have to be a complete culinarily inept gotard to think that they're interchangeable.
I don't like the commercials at all, for many reasons. The biggest being that they have that "one generation poorly and awkwardly pandering another that they don't understand" feeling. But the fact of the matter is that if anything is slightly more uncool than MW - it has to be Mayonnaise. Nothing summarizes American suburban sloth and apathy like even the word "Mayonnaise". And I say this as a confirmed daily mayo consumer. Hellmann's is the polyester pantsuit of the spread world, not Miracle Whip.
A pretty bland commercial for a relatively bland product. (Albeit one that I like.) If your punch line is "we will not tone it down." you had better be loud and - 'in your face'.
Except for the Panini and Crostini this could have run in the 60's - maybe as a sponsor for the Ed Sullivan Show.
And, to the point of Miracle Whip. My father had a rule: put it on your plate and you had to eat it or sit there. Went to our cousin's house in the suburbs, sat at the oilcloth-covered table, ate the tuna casserole with the potato chip topping, and then there was an upside-down jello mold with whipped cream topping. Yum.
I take one bite and came so close to projectile-vomiting. The creamy, delicious whipped cream was in reality Miracle Whip. Argggghh. My first encounter. But it didn't matter to Dad, and long after all the family had left the room I sat there with it. The only thing that saved me was we had to leave to drive home.
It's all subjective, but trying to make the epitome (to me) of bad condiments into a cool product is just bleechh, gag, urp, cough...not possible.
Next, we'll hear that Creamora is the environmentally correct choice to make.
Question for you: are we witnessing ever more frequently commercials that "shoot the strategy," -- the choice of douche bag clients a measure beyond "shoot the research?" While we are all glad that "Viva Viagra" is going off the air, I'm not sure we can take the sequel strategy. Only true douche bags believe they need to help us get over the embarrassment of 'ask my doctor.'
And while on the subject of inspired douche bag client direction, how many more years will Cialis brand management rely on his and her bath tubs? "Make sure every spot, every moment, the viewer sees matching tubs in space." - who's fantasy is this anyway?
Credit to Kraft for risking the current Miracle Whip buyer in an attempt to find a new space. Unlikely the attempt by mcgarrybowen will succeed. Advertising executions so transparently forced rarely lead the way to cool and 'whip' for a generation.