Ideas NOT to swipe

I don't know if anyone else has seen Kraft Miracle Whip's re-branding campaign. You haven't? Good because it sucks almost as bad as Miracle Whip tastes (I don't know or care if that was proper English, I'm blogging).

I first started seeing ads over the summer. If I remember correctly it was while watching Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (great show) On Demand. On Demand shows typically have only one sponsor and one ad is played at each commercial break so during the course of an episode I may have seen up to 5 or 6 shitty Miracle Whip commercials.

Why do I hate them so much? Well, part of it has to do with how much I simply hate the taste of Miracle Whip. The other part is how they are trying to reposition the product. I don't have to look up very much consumer data to know that old people are the heaviest users of Miracle Whip. They ain't getting any younger. I understand the need for Kraft to find new consumers to eat this trash but I don't like how they went about it.

The new commercials basically show how much fun hipsters can have while consuming Miracle Whip. Yayyy! Bitter flavored mayonnaise is cool now! I live is inner SE Portland (hipster central) and I don't see them buying Miracle Whip at the grocery store, only PBR and American Spirits.

These commercials just seem really forced and inauthentic. It feels like there is a disconnect with Kraft's message and whomever they are trying to target. Just because you throw young, cool looking people into your commercial, that doesn't make your product young and cool. I assume most young people are either smart enough or sarcastic enough to not buy into what Kraft is selling.

Master of controversy

Tiger Woods has been no stranger to controversy lately and his newest Nike ad is no exception. The new ad released right before the Master's Tournament features a voice over by his deceased father apparently lecturing Tiger.

Nike was one of the only companies to stick with Tiger after his transgressions became public, not that they had much choice because Tiger Woods IS Nike Golf. A lot of people think it's creepy or too weird to throw his dead father into an ad. Maybe it is. It is also brilliant on Nike's part.

The controversy generated by the ad is part of it's brilliance. I've seen the ad nearly a dozen times now, and not once in a paid TV spot. I first found it linked on Facebook by some friends who work at Nike. In the days after it released I started seeing it all over talk shows including The Daily Show, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, and Larry King Live. Everyone had an opinion on it and everyone wanted to talk about it. Without spending very much money the ad had seeped its way into the consciousness of the entire country in a few short days.

Love the ad or hate it, you still saw the swoosh an extra dozen times that week and that is why I would swipe it. No, I don't want to make ads with dead people, but I do like the execution of it. Anything Tiger related was going to generate a buzz and the timing of this advertisement capitalized on that.

First Post

Yayyyyyyy!

Be there. I won't.

This is a TV commercial I would file away in my "do not swipe file". It's not even the message I don't like. It's just the fact that these people are throwing a party and filling a pool full of foam to jump in. Yeah that looks kinda fun. You know what would be more fun? Swimming in water in that pool.

Or drinking something other than Smirnoff.