People who are exposed to fast food logos become increasingly impatient and lose the impulse to save money, researchers said.
Volunteers who were shown the McDonald’s logo on screen so briefly that they could not recognise it still became agitated, the study found.
Today, rather than creating a culture of collaboration, the Mad Men advertising campaign reinforces static images and, just as alarming, it builds silos within the brand culture. Stakeholders feel left out of the process and wonder about the mission and core values. Inevitably, the budget office submits the campaign to a cost-benefit analysis and wonders how the expenditures ever got approved. The foot prints are traced back to the Mad Men.
Here is more video from Mobile Youths discussion with students at the University of California-Irvine. In this video Graham Brown asks “What Brands GET you?” Their answers such as Nike and Apple may not surprise you but what we found interesting was their keen understanding, awareness and interest in the marketing of these brands. Old Spice was another name that stood out, a brand that in the past ten years has really turned around it’s image as an old man’s aftershave into an array of bath products for young men. However, when asked about Axe, it was viewed as a product for high school students. The conversation then turns to food and how students may “splurge on the cool technology” but seek out the high value, low cost, greater quantity, when it comes to choices for dining. Wendy’s value menu, Subway’s $5 Footlongs and Chipotle’s sizable burrito offerings get the mention.
When Wal-Mart implemented Project Impact at 600 US stores, it had an unintended impact – sales suddenly declined. Part of the reason for the decline was thought to be the company’s decision to remove an area of the store called “Action Alley,” which features some of Wal-Mart’s biggest selling items. Simon admitted that Project Impact was “responsible for some of the traffic and some of the sales decline as well.”
There was a disturbing outcome when the prices of the healthy food was lowered: the mothers ‘treated’ their family by actually purchasing more junk food with the money they were saving.
Indra Nooyi, the boss of PepsiCo, wants her firm to be “seen as one of the defining companies of the first half of the 21st century”, a “model of how to conduct business in the modern world.” More specifically, she argues that Pepsi, which makes crisps (potato chips) and other fatty, salty snacks as well as sugary drinks, should be part of the solution, not the cause, of “one of the world’s biggest public-health challenges, a challenge fundamentally linked to our industry: obesity.”
Rats became ‘hooked’ on sausage and cheesecake in same way as drug abusers
Junk food may be addictive in the same way as heroin or cocaine, according to a study showing that laboratory rats will endure painful electric shocks to satisfy their craving for high-calorie snacks made from sausages, bacon and cheesecake.
Scientists have found that a “café-style” diet of fatty, sugary food results in compulsive overeating among rats and causes neuro-chemical changes to the brain that mimic the sort of alterations in the human brain brought about by addiction to heroin and cocaine.
The findings lend support to the idea that certain types of energy-intensive foods can trigger compulsive overeating and obesity in humans, leading to a form of food addiction that is almost impossible to overcome by dieting.
The powers that be will never truly eradicate ambush marketing, but they are certainly getting tougher and these stories should provide food for thought for marketers looking to develop marketing campaigns, which coincide or somehow relate to the 2012 London Olympics or any other high profile sponsorship-led event.
The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.
With Vancouver’s 2010 winter events concluded, sports fans are looking forward to the London summer Olympics. However, a paradox has popped up in the attempt to promote the 2012 Games: The very rules put in place to protect the Olympic brand are preventing travel agents from promoting the Olympic brand.
In an effort to protect the reputation of the games, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and the Metropolitan Police are cooperating to warn travel agents about the consequences of breaking trademark and copyright laws. Several agents have already been reprimanded. “It will be tricky for travel firms to benefit from the games if they can’t say ‘Go to London for the Olympics,’” said the chairman of the Prevention of Fraud in Travel Group. No kidding
Like people, brands make mistakes. But their mistakes are much bigger because they reach millions of people and might destroy the image of the brand leading to a phenomenal fall from grace. This is a paper about brands loosing status, respect, and prestige and how to avoid it.
Have a break: Greenpeace vs KitKat
KitKats, gotta love em. Each bar consists of fingers composed of three layers of crème-filled wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar one at a time. It is not just a chocolate bar; it is a way of living. Who did not ‘have a break’ eating a KitKat?
Apparently the orangutans in the rainforests of Indonesia are not that fond of the chocolate treats. Greenpeace holds Nestlé – the producer of KitKat - responsible for destroying rainforests to get cheap palm oil, a key ingredient of the chocolate bar. The rainforests are also the natural habitat of the orangutan and having a break while your own home is destructed is pretty difficult.
Today Greenpeace released a commercial in the typical KitKat style in order to raise awareness among the consumers of KitKat and to ask them to give the orangutan his well deserved break. It is a pretty in-your-face video in which the chocolate fingers of the KitKat turn out to be the fingers of the orangutan and the crème-filling is its blood. Bon appétit!
In general I am not a fan of the use of shock advertising in the social sector, because it seems to have lost its effect a long time ago. In this case I do like the video, because the message is not only direct, but it also takes away your appetite. The association of the orangutan’s hairy and bloody finger with this chocolate bar will make me think twice when I need a break.
Besides that the video’s direct style fits an organization like Greenpeace and the fact that it is a spoof on a KitKat commercial gives it an interesting mix of humor and seriousness.
Don’t just give the orangutan a break, but stop Nestlé from destroying rainforests for palm oil.
SunChips, a Frito-Lay brand, already ahead in the guilt game of eating chips, has taken a leap forward in ecological ethics and rolled out an entirely compostable bag for its multigrain brand. Made from corn, the bags will decompose in under four months.
Per the official website: “We dream of a world with less waste. That’s why we’ve introduced a bag made from plants so it’s fully compostable. Every 10 ½ oz. SunChips® package is designed to fully break down in just 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile. If it takes a little longer, don’t worry about it. Mother nature will get to it soon enough.”
In addition to the calories and questionable nutritional value of any chip snack, billions of bags end up in garbage dumps annually. Certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute, according to Brad Rogers, North American sustainable packaging manager, the new compostable bags have passed tests “with flying colors.”
Beyond perfecting the bag, the issue of consumer education around the whole arena of composting remains daunting. Gannon Jones, VP, portfolio marketing, Frito-Lay North America, recognizes that Americans basic knowledge about composting is “mixed,” and “similar to questions asked about recycling 25 or 30 years ago.” Frito-Lay has made a substantial investment in compostable bags which, continues, Gannon, “is not a cost-savings for us.”
In order to be properly disposed of, the product needs a B.P.I. logo affixed. SunChips multigrain bags will have those logos beginning in May and June. Their Modesto, CA. plant collects solar energy which assists directly in the manufacture of 145,000 bags daily. A funny side-effect is the louder sound the bags make upon crumbling.
“That’s because plant-based materials have different sound properties than the materials used to create our old bags. So although this version is a little bit louder, we hope you’ll appreciate the change and the positive environmental impact it will have.”
The SunChips brand is doing its share – one chip at a time, and Mother Nature approves.
A film written and directed by Denis van Waerebeke for the « Bon appétit » exhibition, aimed mainly at the kids aged 9 to 14.
