Don't Vote! My favorite celebrity PR campaign

5 More Friends I really liked the “Don’t Vote” PR campaign that I saw a little while ago on MySpace, because it was very different from other PR campaigns and PSAs (Public service announcements) and therefore very effective. Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, along with Sacha Baron Cohen as “Borat,” Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal, are featured in a second of a series of public service announcements to encourage the American youth to vote in partnership with Google, YouTube, Declare Yourself, and MySpace. The non-partisan PSA’s, produced by DiCaprio’s Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to vote and participate in the elections of 2008. I think that they did a very good job especially with the first part of the spot, because it attracts one’s attention right away: people who watch it for the first time must be really puzzled by the fact that all those celebrities all of a sudden start telling people NOT to vote instead of the other way round as usual. One starts to follow the spot closely, because one does not want to miss what else they have to say. Bit by bit the spot starts to resolve the pretended misunderstanding, and the celebrities explain that they were only being sarcastic and they start to bring across their real message: VOTE! In my opinion, it is very effective to use A-list celebrities for a PR campaign like this, because people often feel like they actually know those people and most people are interested in what celebrities have to say and therefore listen to them. I also think that the spot was very cleverly made, because the celebrities do not seem like they are only saying any of their lines from the script; to the contrary they seem really natural and convinced by what they say and it seems as if they all say what they really think (which probably is true, because that is why so many famous celebrities took part in this campaign). This short spot shows that celebrity PR does not necessarily have to be something bad and that celebrities do not always use PR in order to promote themselves or their latest movie/song. Some of them make use of PR to support a good cause with their name. Also, PR does not always have to be shocking and scandalizing like for example most stories about Britney Spears. Good PR brings along a message that the celebrities support to their target public and creates relationships with it, in this case young voters. And whatever some people might have to say against the impact that PR really has, it apparently works.

Super Bowl and Budweiser

The Super Bowl is the most watched TV program of the year in the U.S. On average, about 40% of all US households tune into it every year. This makes the show a perfect stage for advertising to many different target audiences. Ever since the huge success of the Apple commercial introducing the Mac in 1984, the Super Bowl has become the premier platform for extravagant and also very expensive commercials. Companies pay tremendous sums only to have their commercials shown at this special event. A record was set in 2008 when a company paid the unbelievable amount of $ 2.7 million for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl XLII. One of the most established brands that participate in the commercial craziness of the Super Bowl almost every year is Budweiser. 2008s Super Bowl was featuring several Budweiser commercials that were all different from each other although some of them had the same approach: they were targeting young people, preferably males who are used to ‘usual’ commercials and whose humour appeal can only be reached by a commercial that is different and really surprising. For this reason, Budweiser came up with the following campaign. In the commercials, they present really crazy and unbelievable things that they claim people are able to do when they drink Bud Light. However, those things always go wrong, for example one guy thinks that Bud Light is going to make him fly and he actually starts flying with a beer bottle in his hands, however, unfortunately he is sucked in by a blast pipe of a plane and gets roasted. When he is back on the ground another guy asks him: “Rough flight?” This advertising clearly targets young men between 20 and 30 who are interested in challenges and who become curious when they see somebody doing something crazy like being able to fly. The funny climax of this commercial is also exactly tailored to this target group. Another Bud Light example of the company’s attempt to attract the biggest part of the Super Bowl’s audience is the commercial where a few couples are having a house party and the guys are supposed to bring some cheese and wine. Instead, they bring dummies made out of cardboard, though, in order to trick their wives. The dummies contain something that the guys prefer over any other food or drinks – Bud Light. Budweiser obviously tries to reach the biggest part of target audiences in the Super Bowl with their ads. However, in the Super Bowl 2008 there was also one ad that was tailored to a different, smaller target audience: women. The commercial shows the story of a horse who did not get picked for a parade. It meets a dog, though, that starts coaching the horse and helping him to improve until the end of the story when, after one year, the horse finally gets picked for the parade. Budweiser really cleverly picked kind out a random but still moving story in order to reach this different target audience of women. This target audience is definitely older, also because the commercial is for the more ‘grown-up’ brand Budweiser, and it is presented like part of a heart-warming movie. If so many people all over the country watch the Super Bowl every year, these ads must be cleverly picked and the cost for them must be well worth it, because companies are able to reach several different big target audiences by airing them at this special time. (Link to the commercials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ce-SJreIA )

2 Ads I liked and one that I did not like

The first commercial that I really liked was the one for Heineken where some Dutch space researchers send a robot into space to discover a new planet. They are really excited when the robot lands on the planet and also really proud because as they say if there is life on this unknown planet, the Dutch will have discovered it (which, of course, is an allusion to Heineken being a Dutch brand). However, they are really surprised when they see that the little robot is actually opening a beer bar for Heineken instead of exploring the planet. I think the commercial works really well because it applies to the humour appeal very well which also matches the image of Heineken and their target audience which mostly consists of young men. The commercial builds up suspense by showing the researchers in their research center when they shoot the robot into space. Everybody is really excited about what is going to happen next and the tension is suddenly released and turned into laughter when the robot reveals its actual plans. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMAKJjGJpXo) The second commercial that I picked because I think it was really good in appealing to consumer wants and needs is a commercial for Porsche that was part of a viral marketing campaign. I think it was really successful in getting across the intended message, because it did not only trigger the consumer appeal of sex and therefore promoted the “sexy image” of the car brand, but it also approached the consumer appeal of humour at the same time. In the commercial, a really nice looking woman who is not wearing more than underwear and a coat sees a Porsche parked in a dark side street. She is really attracted by the car (which is also underlined by the background music ‘Weil es Liebe ist’ which means ‘Because it’s Love’), falls in love with it and suddenly opens her coat and reveals her sexy underwear to it. The car then ‘responds’ in a funny way: It lifts its back part in ‘joy’. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9VsGjXkHeg) As I already mentioned in my last blog, the first commercial that I chose as the worst ad I have ever seen was the one for Pepto Bismol with the randomly dancing people. The second worst commercial I picked is one of the first commercials for Calvin Klein underwear starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Moss. It seems like a good attempt to use celebrities for these kinds of commercials and the CK ad is also trying to trigger the consumer appeals of sex and humour, however, this does not really work out which makes the commercial come across sexist and shallow. Mark Wahlberg is constantly touching his groin area in the commercial and jokes around about it. The most disturbing and offensive part of the unsuccessful attempt to focus on the consumer appeal of humour, however, is when Mark Wahlberg says that the best protection against AIDS is to keep your Calvin Klein underwear on. This topic was really big in the 90s when this ad came out. In my opinion it is not the right approach to treat it humorously in an ad for underwear though. Maybe this was what their target audience was looking for, but looking at it from today’s perspective, the ad is not very successful. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h0S80qdjOI&feature=related)