Over at PR Breakfast Club, Keith Trivitt had a blog entry that caught my attention - Latest ‘Got Milk?’ Campaign Shows Worst of Marketing.
Basically the California Milk Processor Board ran a 'Got Milk?" campaign where the theme was that milk helps women with PMS and as a result helps men who have to deal with women with PMS. The microsite associated with the campaign can be found at www.gotdiscussion.org
This kind of reminds me of the time Nike ran a commercial where a woman was being attacked by Michael Myers. That commercial got banned, but I believe they also have a commercial where a woman gets mugged on the street, but outruns her mugger. Or I think it was actually a woman was being chased by a mugger, but by the end of the commercial there isn't a mugger and the message was that with Nike shoes you run like you are running for your life (although I can't find that particular ad on YouTube).
Anyway, "Got Milk' and 'Just Do it' are perhaps the two most recognizable brand phrases in the world. Not sure why companies mess around with their brand once they've hit the motherload. I suppose it's simply that creative urge to keep pushing the brand upwards and onwards and 'fresh'. But at a certain point, when you've hit gold, sometimes you should stop and be a little careful about messing with perfection.
It's not that these commercials aren't funny within the right context, but that they break so aggressively from the brand sentiment created in all their previous advertisements. As a result people, the public in general sees them and thinks 'WTF?'
And tying milk to PMS just makes no sense to me. People drink milk for the calcium and having strong bones - and with their cereal. If they wanted to be funny what they should have done was maybe run a series of ads that fictionalized what the world would look like without Milk. Some bizarro earth where milk disappeared and everyone was in casts, their teeth were falling out and they were using orange juice with their cereal and making sour faces over the taste.
The same thing goes with the Nike commercial. I actually think the Nike commercial was kind of innovative (mind you I like horror movies), but it was such a departure from their 'inspiration' theme. The commercial probably would have been more appropriate for something like Monster drinks.
So there you have it, the experiation date on Got Milk? just ran out and now it tastes funky and sour.
Hopefully they pull these ads, bury any graphics and videos they have, go silent for a while, and relaunch something more traditional (or at least more interesting) down the road.
Basically the California Milk Processor Board ran a 'Got Milk?" campaign where the theme was that milk helps women with PMS and as a result helps men who have to deal with women with PMS. The microsite associated with the campaign can be found at www.gotdiscussion.org
Anyway, "Got Milk' and 'Just Do it' are perhaps the two most recognizable brand phrases in the world. Not sure why companies mess around with their brand once they've hit the motherload. I suppose it's simply that creative urge to keep pushing the brand upwards and onwards and 'fresh'. But at a certain point, when you've hit gold, sometimes you should stop and be a little careful about messing with perfection.
It's not that these commercials aren't funny within the right context, but that they break so aggressively from the brand sentiment created in all their previous advertisements. As a result people, the public in general sees them and thinks 'WTF?'
And tying milk to PMS just makes no sense to me. People drink milk for the calcium and having strong bones - and with their cereal. If they wanted to be funny what they should have done was maybe run a series of ads that fictionalized what the world would look like without Milk. Some bizarro earth where milk disappeared and everyone was in casts, their teeth were falling out and they were using orange juice with their cereal and making sour faces over the taste.
The same thing goes with the Nike commercial. I actually think the Nike commercial was kind of innovative (mind you I like horror movies), but it was such a departure from their 'inspiration' theme. The commercial probably would have been more appropriate for something like Monster drinks.
So there you have it, the experiation date on Got Milk? just ran out and now it tastes funky and sour.
Hopefully they pull these ads, bury any graphics and videos they have, go silent for a while, and relaunch something more traditional (or at least more interesting) down the road.
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