June 15, 2005
Coke...First recipient of the AdverDORK award
Advertising. Can there be a more glorious profession? Simply put, they get to spend their working hours learning what people like, and using that knowledge to figure out how to present "stuff" to people so they'll buy it. It's kind of like a high school popularity contest on steroids. I have nothing against marketers or advertisers. I spent one whole year in an MBA program with an emphasis on marketing. The trouble is that some agencies, and the marketers who hire them, are a little off. Or maybe way off. Additionally they may suffer from the "Emperor has no clothes" syndrome to such a degree that nobody calls stupid stupid. I would be completely remiss if I didn't award some kind of AdverDORK status to such folks.
I'm proud to announce that the first corporation to receive the Dorkeriffic AdverDORK award is Coca-Cola.
On 6/13/05 in their article titled "Teaching the World to Sing -- Again," the Wall Street Journal reported about Coke's new ad campaign. Remember the old hilltop retromercial (you might have seen the original, or caught it on TV Land) with guys and girls standing hand in hand on a hilltop singing a perky little folk tune? "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company."
The WSJ reported that the new commercial is a nod to the original, with a hip-hop spin on it. It goes something like this..."I'd like to teach the world to chill, take time to stop and smile, I'd like to buy the world a Coke and chill with it a while." Seriously. They managed to get rapper G Love to perform this diddy. I hope for his sake they paid him a boatload of money to do this.
Let's see...looks like they'll be able to alienate the Boomers, Rap and Hip-Hop demographics in one fell swoop! Why not? It's the real thing ;-) Anyone who thought this was a great idea must be an unconscious Dork. A conscious Dork would have known this was a Dorky idea and run the other way, or done it completely tongue-in-cheek.
So to you, Coca-Cola, and your agency of record, for your "chilltop" campaign idea I grant you the Dorkeriffic title of AdverDORK.
Posted by Sheryl at 07:15 PM | Comments (1)