Filed under: ad agency,advertising,branding,market research,retail,US economy
While I’d prefer to come up with these on my own, I’m afraid that I would be the one who’s hard of hearing if I didn’t pick a recent Pepsi ad for G2 (low-calorie Gatorade) as the tone-deaf ad of the week.
You can see what Pepsi was trying to do almost immediately, but BLAM: this thing has really come back around and smacked them in the head. This means Pepsi now have something in common with AIG – but I’ll get to that later.
The spot switches back and forth between NBA player Kevin Barnett and a normal, suburban-looking guy – also named Kevin – swimming like crazy. The voiceover also switches back and forth and herein lies the problem. In trying to write a standard “athletic striving” ad, they get seriously tangled in a lot of language that many are considering cruel and insulting to people who have lost their jobs and are otherwise suffering because of the economic crisis. See for yourself (if you can’t see the ad already, click HERE)
When I first heard about this controversy, I really, really wanted to support Pepsi. Then I saw the ad, and that became impossible.
The lines hurtle between insensitivity and cruelty:
Garnett: “I’ve never been handed a pink slip and “I’ve never had to tell me wife ‘We can’t make the mortgage.’” (Kevin “The Big Ticket” Garnett has a $24.75 million NBA contract)
Normal Kevin: “I’ve never had to fill the holes in my sneakers with cardboard.”
That last one IMHO is the most offensive of all. Normal Kevin appears to be taking us past unemployment and foreclosure straight on to visions of being homeless in the park.
The tragedy here is this was completely unnecessary. The financial services companies got into trouble for how they handled their (financial services) business! Gatorade just runs right into a buzz saw for no reason at all.
And so, let me wrap up a Friday by coming back to how Pepsi is now an AIG comrade. Both companies have fundamentally failed to grasp how people are feeling today… how many people are suffering. 1.3 million children in the United States were homeless at some point in one year – and that was before the recession started. I would assume that many of those children have had to use cardboard to plug the holes in their shoes.
If you think I am overdramatizing, I would respectfully suggest that you could make a mistake not dissimilar to the ones made by Pepsi and the banks, either while on the job or at a cocktail party. This is vast, vast pain.
I am counseling clients today to look hard at the need to advertise. If you are running ads, make sure they are seen and tested with a much broader swath of consumers and experts – ones who may not be in your target audience.
Is all this fair? NO ONE CARES. We are all in the business to sell, of course, but think long-term. If you’re not 100% secure in next week’s flight, cancel it. Because getting this wrong could negatively affect your brand’s reputation for years, if not a lifetime.
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I think you’re not getting the “cardboard” reference. The normal Kevin mentions having to put cardboard in his shoes because Kevin Garnett was so poor as a kid he had to do that. He lived through that, and having gone from ‘rags-to-riches’ is a key part of who he is.
I agree that the “pink slip” line was a poor choice given the economic crisis and all the layoffs and foreclosures, but it’s beyond reason to make a connection between Pepsi and AIG. AIG’s literally becoming a different company with a new name. Pepsi/Gatorade used a questionable line, but there’s not going to be any lasting impact on its business. Although the fact that people are talking about it certainly won’t hurt.
Comment by Nate 03.28.09 @ 4:19 pmHi Stephanie.
You’re absolutely right. But of course, there’s an alternative point of view.
Please take a look at http://occasionalupdates.blogspot.com/
–Brian
Comment by Brian Belefant 03.30.09 @ 1:58 pmI caught this on Reputation Garage which led me here – I had seen the ad, and actually felt very confused and wasn’t exactly sure what the ad had “said” to me. I now understand why – it was tone deaf!
Thanks.
Wanda
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