I understand companies sculpt their advertising schemes differently depending on which market they are addressing. It’s the nature of the beast. When you are competing for market share, especially when there are many products that really aren’t all that different from what you are offering, you need to pimp your product in a way that hits potential customers square in the gut to get their attention and, more importantly, affection.
You need your advertising to reach people on a near visceral level; make a personal connection to those consumers that says “we understand you better than the other guys do. We get you.” So an advertising campaign will naturally be different depending on the market you’re pandering to, styling the pitch to address consumers in one locale in a way you’d never dream trying in a different location.
That said, in an InterWebTubes world, you’re not doing it in a vacuum. As the Dixie Chicks learned, what you say “over there” is gonna be heard back here, and could seriously bite you in the ass.
This simple truth seems to have eluded the folks at Absolut:
I can’t begin to explain how much FAIL! is contained in this advert. Absolut’s ad shop probably thought running this in some Mexico City magazine (and also on billboards) was “bold; edgy” or similar such nonsense, never considering that us gringos would get wind of it and be royally pissed that some vodka pimps would play this kind of pandering politics. I was never a fan, but now there is no way in hell I’ll buy their juice; the Igloo will only stock Stoli or Grey Goose.
I have a bunch of buddies who own bars, and sports-addled bar rats comprise my main coterie of friends; they are ALL going to be hearing about this bullshit.
via Gateway Pundit
UPDATE: I believe this qualifies as “shit hitting the fan.”
But Stoli sucks and Grey Goose is (gasp!) FRENCH, so how do you justify this little contradiction?
“I have a bunch of buddies who own bars, and sports-addled bar rats comprise my main coterie of friends; they are ALL going to be hearing about this bullshit.”
And they’ll stand there, and listen to you, and commiserate….and, after a week or so, go back to supplying whatever the people want, and whatever maximizes their profit.
As I have explained to earnest friends of mine, boycotts don’t WORK, in today’s age.
If they are not rooted in true, repeated, consistent outrage, they don’t leave enough of a mark to matter to a company’s bottom line (or the companies themselves wouldn’t do it, in the first place).
That’s the flip side to the myth of the “free market”, and the corporatist power you are willing to ignore (until IT bites you in the ass).
“But Stoli sucks and Grey Goose is (gasp!) FRENCH, so how do you justify this little contradiction?”
I’m a single-malt whiskey guy; the vodak that’s here is for guests.
What brand vodka do you supply for your guests?
Usually whatever is the cheapest on the liquor store’s shelf that isn’t “paint remover” on the quality scale.
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