Brand New Day

KFC's Sweet Home Alabama Ads Ignore The Racist Backdrop of the Song.

Music is an integral part of advertising, to be sure. Pick the right music and it can be a creative signature for years. United Airlines has done this with George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue." But I would have liked to be in the room when the creatives at FCB, Chicago decided it was a good idea to use Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" for KFC. Using a song that has long been an anthem for defending the Confederacy to sell fried chicken? Am I the only one squirming and laughing at the same time?

Am I overstating this? You decide. Here's one verse of the song: "Well I heard Mister Young sing about her. Well, I heard ole Neil put her down. Well, I hope Neil Young will remember A southern man dont need him around anyhow."

This is a reference to Neil Young's "Southern Man." A stanza from that song, which tells of the changes coming for the Southerners whether they like it or not, goes: "Southern man better keep your head. Don't forget what your good book said. Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast. Southern man"

Sweet Home continues: "Sweet home alabama Oh sweet home baby. Where the skies are so blue
And the governors true. Sweet home alabama. Lordy Lord, Im coming home to you. Yea, yea montgomerys got the answer."

That Governor? He was George Wallace, who championed segregation of the races. For any clear thinking person, white or black, George Wallace was a bad guy. Not just a product of his generation and upbringing. He stood in front of the doors of a school, trying to keep black students out. He ordered up fire hoses to put down demonstrations. Go to any road house in Alabama, and on many a night you can still hear this song being belted out by folks clutching their long-neck bottles and throwing a salute to a Confederate flag.

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Dear Martha: A Few Thoughts About Your New Brand

Dear Martha:
How's the food? I tried to see you. I thought you would have liked the company. But I was turned away. I had rice crispy squares for you. When I couldn't get in, I gave them to the screws and asked that they give you an extra bar of lavender soap or something.

Listen girlfriend, I just wanted to give you a few thoughts about Act 2 of this play you call your company and your image. When you get out and start taking meetings:

1. You have to take yourself seriously, but not too seriously like you did before. You did "a good thing" for America by getting families to aspire to creating nicer home environments. A lot of people raised their standards for home decor and home cooking because of you, even if we fail to meet those standards most of the time. But you've been in jail now. If you come out and pretend it didn't happen, and continue the ice queen routine, you won't have any credibility. Look into the camera and say: "I made some mistakes. I'm human. There are some things I'd do over if I could. But I did some time in the slammer (actually say "slammer" if you think of it) and as difficult an experience as it was, I believe it will make me a stronger and better person."

2. At least think about taking corporate governance on as an issue. Talk about how you thought everything you did was correct, but maybe in retrospect it wasn't. Say this: That we can't be too careful and we can't be too willing to go further than we think we have to when it comes to doing the right thing by the people who invest in our companies.

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Erectile Dysfunction Ads Get my Dander Up

We've all seen them by now. Erectile Dysfunction ads. The dirty little secret is that the warnings telling men to get medical attention if they have a four hour erection after taking these drugs is more salesmanship than a warning. "Four hours? Really? Hmmmmmm."

The real point here is that these ads do not belong on TV while I'm watching the Giants, Yankees or Phil Mickelson chip golf balls with my son in the room, or my Mother for that matter. Networks like Fox and NBC say they don't run such ads on "family" programming like American Idol or before 9PM. But they make exceptions for News and Sports, which can carry the ads anytime. That's like saying, "I pay 100% of the taxes I owe...except when I don't." Or, how about, "I am a vegetarian, except I do eat pork once in a while."

Call me a prude, but there it is. While I am not alone in my opinion that these ads should be relegated to print, the Net and re-runs of Murder She Wrote and Columbo, I frankly thought I would have more company than I do. A Businessweek online poll shows 65% of respondents think these ads are innapropriate as they are currently running.

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Airlines Are Not Marketing Even If They Think They Are

I've been struck lately by the 'feel good' ads by airlines that I've seen. UNited has been running an update of its George Gershwin music themed spots with interesting pen-drawing animation. Delta has recently kicked off a new campaign, themed "Good Goes Around." American has been running sentimental TV ads with the slogan, "We Know Why You Fly."

Each time one of these spots comes on, I think to myself, "Who the heck is choosing an airline based on any of this?" Frequent business travelers are pretty much choosing airlines based on where their frequent flyer miles are and schedule. Consumers are, for the most part, choosing based on where their frequent flyer miles are (that they collect through their jobs) and price. The typical leisure traveler these days is checking online via Orbitz, Expedia or one of the other services for prices and schedules. When the selection of options comes up from United, Northwest, Delta, American, Air France, Virgin Atlantic--how many people are choosing based on how they feel about the airline?

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Applebees Shmapplebees

Back from the three-day weekend, and yet another trip to Applebees with my three-year old son.
Turns out despite our best efforts to limit his macaroni and cheese intake to our own home-made whole-grain mac and organic cheddar cheese, he wants the stuff Applebees calls mac-and-cheese.
For the uninitiated, Applebee's mac and cheese bears an uncanny rersemblance to the 39-cent box (with coupon) of Kraft mac and cheese my roomates and I ate in college. I figure I'm paying roughly 5.99 for ten cents worth of product. But at some point, after seeing some Applebees ads on Kid TV, a trip to Applebees became for him what dinner and movie is to us.

I know I have been vociferous in my condemnation of crappy food like this. So, why should I give in even once in a while? In this case, it was to reward a six-hour car ride in which he was incredibly well-behaved and good tempered despite the fact that he had no idea his Mother wasn't going to be making the trip before he got into the minivan. But Im bothered by rewarding him with a food item I don't believe is good for him. So, I have to figure out a way to reward with him with a trip to the place he loves but find a better choice.

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New Saab Ads Go Nowhere

Saab Cars USA could well be on its way to being the Peugeot of the 21st century, at least when it comes to the U.S. market. In other words: So irrelevant that there's no point in keeping up the charade of marketing. New ads, featuring the phrase, "Distinctively designed. Independently Inspired," does nothing to convey the allure of this brand.

In one spot, "Lost," which is an apt title, a man is lost in his own office amind a vast cubicle farm. A woman tries on a dress in a store only to find five other women trying on the same dress. Okay, we get it. People who buy Saabs swim against the current, walk to a different drummer, blah, blah, blah. The point is that any brand struggling to find an audience could have shot these same scenes and inserted their brand. Peugeot used to trumpet this same idea in the two years before it exited the U.S. market.

Saab Cars is owned by General Motors. To beef up the Saab product line, GM has added the 9-2, a repackaged version of the Subaru WRX (GM owns a piece of Subaru), and later this year the company will introduce the Saab 9-7 SUV, a repackaged Chevy Trailblazer that apparently comes with a gift certificate for Ikea furniture to lend this truck some Swedish bonafides. A 9-6 SUV, based on Subaru's forthcoming Tribeca SUV is coming in 2006.

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Reebok's Popeye Play

I can hear Popeye now, with that Rum and cigarette soaked voice, reciting, "I Yam What I Yam." Reebok, the sneaker maker, is launching its first global campaign since "Planet Reebok" a decade ago, with the slogan, "I Am What I Am." No sign of the spinach eating sailor with the jones for ultra-skinny women. But Yao Ming, Allen Iverson, Andy Roddick, Lucy Liu, Jay Z (Sean Carter) and 50 Cent are all flogging for Reebok.

The campaign has the celebrities saying things about themselves that consumers/fans wouldn't necessarily expect. It's not sales pitch stuff. Nothing to do with sneakers. "Where I am from, there is no Plan B. So, take advantage of today because tomorrow is not promised." In the Yao Ming ad, the relentlessly upbeat Chinese basketball star says, "I'm happy that there are commercials and billboards that show me smiling. They do what I can't--smile 24 hours a day."

"This is a unique and ownable position relative to our competitors," says Reebok chief marketing officer Dennis Baldwin. "We think people, especially the young consumer we are after, want to define themselves. They don't want to be told to 'Just Do It.'"

Saying his strategy is smarter than Nike's is bold talk, considering Reebok has about a 14% share, while Nike stands at 36%.

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FTC Rules Against Disclosing Product Placement Ads.

Those who would like to further blur the lines between content and advertising got help from the Bush Administration Thursday when the Federal Trade Commission ruled against a petition by the consumer watchdog group, Commercial Alert, asking that TV shows disclose in some fashion that brand placements in TV shows are paid advertising.

As a journalist, I always think more information is better than less. I always think of the children in these cases. If a child, or parent and child, is watching a TV show and the storyline takes the characters to Burger King for a Whopper, I think it's worth knowing that the trip to the fast food joint was bought and paid for. The point of such a placement is to model the behavior of going to Burger King. Advertisers don't want us to know we have been advertised to. The FTC thinks that's a good thing.

Product integration into TV shows, video games and even magazines is taking off. More and more advertising is going to be woven into the shows we watch, the games we play and the magazines we read. Why? Because advertisers have spent so many years hurling static, uninteresting or obnoxious ads at us, we have driven demand for technology that enables us to skip the ads. Advertisers don't like that, especially when they are paying big bucks for the time and space.

Back in the day, shows like The Andy Griffith Show ran a full slate of credits at the end of the show (still, thankfully, available on TV Land). There was a clear disclosure that Ford Motor Co. provided Andy and Barney's squad car. At the end of The Dick Van Dyke Show, it was made clear that his wardrobe was supplied by Botany 500. The advertisers wanted us to know their stuff was in the show. Game Shows, of course, still do this. I suspect one of the reasons advertisers fought and won this one is because they want the freedom to squish credits to an unreadable type-size and scroll them so fast no one can read them. By doing so, they have extra time to run advertising and promote their own programming.

Lord knows, we can't be against advertising. That would be like being against free speech (though there are plenty of people around who seem to be against free speech, including several people making millons of dollars a year in the media). But there is also a thing called "Freedom of Information," and the FTC just seems to have ruled against that particular freedom.

At 41, Am I Too Old To Wear Low-Riders to Work?

The Virginia State Legislature has passed a law that will fine people for exposing their underwear in public. Hear that terrorists...our state legislatures are hard at work insuring our security. Don't mess with us.

I know this blog is about marketing. But the beauty of writing about marketing is that it encompasses so much.

There is a lot brand traffic in this frivolous law.

First: Virginia retailers may want to stock up on some more low-rider pants, because my parenting experience tells me that the more we geezers (I'm 41 and Delegate Algie T. Howell, D-Norfolk who sponsored the bill, is 67) object to what young people wear, eat or listen to the more they want it. For a guy named "Algie," he's not very hip to this theory.

What he is very hip to is a way to create instant brand recognition for Algie T. Howell. Despite his age, he is a freshman legislator. If he had started out doing what state legislators are supposed to do--worry over state pollution, transportation, education and the like--he might have toiled away in anonymity for years. Now, everyone in Virginia knows him. He's getting lots of fan mail from Methodists and Rotarians. I'd lay odds he will be all over the Fox Network this week. Do I hear Governor's Race?

While I am not surprised the Norfolkian proposed the bill for his own notoriety, I am a little surprised that the rest of the body voted to pass it. But then again, this is a legislature that also is considering bills to ban watching porn on in-car DVD players; no fondling yourself in public (especially if you are watching porn in your car); and no "sex related" clubs in public schools (specifically no gay-lesbian clubs). Apparently, the sponsor of that last bill, Del. Glenn Weatherholtz, R-Harrisonburg, hasn't been taught that being gay is a sexual orientation, not merely an act. Next up, as I understand it, this visionary bunch of legislators is proposing a bill to curb Alan Freed's air-time on commercial radio, as well as banning Henry Miller and Norman Mailer from school libraries. You folks in Virginia are da bomb.

Are Fox and The NFL Kidding? Apparently Standards and Practices Are... Fluid.

As advertisers (and bloggers) try to figure out where the lines of appropriateness are to be drawn, when it comes to advertising on network TV, it gets even harder when the gatekeepers keep changing their minds.

Fox Network and the NFL decided after the first airing of the GoDaddy.com ad in the first half of the Super Bowl that it was to crass to run again in the second half. Howzat? For those who have been visiting Nepal for the last week, the Godaddy.com ad mocked the debate over "taste" in ads that bubbled up since Janet Jackson's breast was exposed during last year's Super Bowl half-time show. The ad showed a boobascious girl testifying before a fictional standards-and-practices panel of legislators in Salem (Witch Hunt) Mass.

So, let me get this straight. The ad runs on the Net and on network TV infotainment shows in the days before the game. It gets greenlighted for the game (to this reviewer's surprise) by Fox and the NFL. It actually runs in the first half. And after all that, the suits at Fox (who let their own show hosts bludgeon the truth on an almost nightly basis) decided that it wasn't appropriate to run again in the second half? I'd love to play chess with these guys. I can hear them now: "That move I made a few moves back, when you took my bishop...in my head, I never really took my hand off the piece, so I want to re-do that." How about painting a house with these guys? You show them the paint chips and buy the paint at the store with them. You spend all weekend painting. The whole job is nearly done, and they chime up, "Holy Cow! It's green. I don't think green is right for this. I thought it was white. Do over!" Who did these people learn the ropes from, Leona Helmsley?

Godaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons complained to Fox when he didn't see his ad come up the second time. He says he's disappointed. Frankly, I think Fox did him a big favor. By acting like boobs bigger than those on the girl in the ad, the Fox suits have to give Parsons his $2.4 million back. If I were Parsons, I'd revel in the savings and all the publicity generated by the spot and the wacky behavior of Fox and the NFL.

When It Comes To Super Bowl Ads, Students Probably Carry More Weight Than I Do

I thought it was a weak year for Super Bowl ads. In my post-game story on Businessweek.com, I name the Grand Brand Super Bowl ad--Anheuser-Busch's salute to the U.S. armed forces. I applied a very scientific process to arrive at the winner. My wife, three-year old son and pet mouse, Stuart, watched the game and the ads. And I decided the winner.

I was interested to see today that a group of 50 students from USC opted for my runner-up, a Bud Light ad in which a parachutist won't go out the door even after the sky-diving leader throws a box of Bud Light out the door. The pilot, not wearing a chute, jumps out after it. A separate student group, The Kellogg School of Management, awarded a grade of A to five advertisers: Emerald Nuts, MasterCard, Pepsi (Pepsi and Diet Pepsi), Tabasco and Toyota Prius. Toyota was the highest ranked advertiser, followed by Pepsi. The panel thought the Pepsi and iTunes promotion was particularly effective.

Interesting, neither of these two student groups thought much of the the ad saluting the troops. In truth, I though the ad for the Prius--in which the gas-electric hybrid car was juxtaposed against cars, trains and even people whose wheels and legs were moving but they weren't getting anywhere--might have made my Honorable Mention list had I not arbitrarily cut off my list at five.

One thing I am sure of, though...when advertisers tally up the buzz from the post game ad analysis, and assign importance to results, two groups of twentysomething students in LA and Chicago will trump this 41-year old bloviating blogger from New Jersey. Perhaps the Pepsi iTunes spots would have resonated with me more if I could overcome my technophobia and graduate from CDs to the MP3 world.

On the other hand, the big AOL survey, which is more demographically diverse than the student studies, also chose the tribute to the troops as the best ad, with 15% of respondents voting it best ad of the evening. Maybe I'm not such a bad bloviator after all.

Funny Versus Offensive. Hypocrisy and Imus Make It Tough To Draw the Line.

Ford Motor Co. has withdrawn a Super Bowl ad that apparently offended victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Before that, Anheuser-Bush dropped plans to run an ad that spoofed last year's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction when the prudes at Fox and the NFL decided no one needed to be reminded. A couple of dee-jays in New York have been fired for a song parody about Tsunami victims. Lawmakers and conservative commentators are calling for the head of Ward L. Churchill, a University of Colorado professor who compared World Trade Center victims from 9-11 to Nazis (a badly written and clumsy analogy in an essay that sought to make a perfectly debatable argument).

Meantime, this morning on Don Imus's morning radio show, which attracts guests the likes of Senator Orrin Hatch, conservative commentator and gadflies Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, Imus's producer chimed up with ridicule of the new husband of the woman who accused NBA star Kobe Bryant of raping her. "After Kobe, that's gotta be like putting a golf ball through a basketball hoop."

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There's a Reason Why Perdue Doesn't Give Plant Tours

Big News: Rev. Al Sharpton has joined with PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), as well as Rap music mogul Russell Simmons, in a boycott of KFC, charging the chain with serial mistreatment of chickens. Is Al channeling Claude Rains in Casablanca? "I'm shocked, SHOCKED!, that there's gambling going on in this establishment."

I used to work for the ad agency that long handled Perdue's advertising account. Let me tell you--There's a reason why they don't do tours at chicken processing plants. It's something akin, if you can imagine, to walking into an operating room and being able to view the surgery from inside the wound.

KFC, Perdue and its other chicken producing peer companies are not giving PETA much traction. That's their prerogative. But if KFC continues to see same-store sales decline, I predict they wake up to the realities of their business model.

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An Advertising Alliance To Hold Off Regulation Against Advertising to Kids. Bravo.

General Mills, Kraft and Kellogg have formed an alliance with three advertising lobby groups to stave off regulation that would limit their ability to advertise directly to kids. Bravo.

In the interest of full disclosure, and since I have blogged on this topic a few times, I think I should point out that I was a fat kid. I am also a fat adult, though not nearly as fat I used to be thanks to adjustable lap-band surgery. I have a son who turns three this week. He probably carries the genetic markers for obesity. My wife and I, however, are doing all we can to model good eating habits and exercise. But we know it will be tough the older he gets. Even if he does have the genetic marker, we know that the environment in which he grows up and the education and behavior modeling we provide will determine how fat he gets or doesn't get.

Let me share the content of a conversation I had recently with an executive at a media outlet that carries childrens programming. He said that the very companies that have formed this alliance have been approached by media outlets over the past 1 to 2 years about advertising healthier stuff on TV programs aimed at kids. And he says they have shown a profound lack of interest. Kids don't respond to healthy food, he's been told by the food companies. A few companies not in this alliance have been approached about advertising their healthier offerings on kids programming--un-processed fruits, whole grain breads and crackers. Same response. The risk-benefit ratio doesn't work. Kids won't respond to having fresh pineapple and apples advertised to them, the marketers say.

There is group think going on here. And this is thinking that doesn't so much reflect truth or reality, but the business model they have carved out. My son not only will talk to me about apples, but during a recent trip to the mall, he was facinated by the Apple Computer store. He asked me to pick him up and hold him up to the enormous Apple logo and he mimed taking a bite out of it. My Mother just baked us a batch of cookies with fresh ingredients like oat-meal, fresh ginger and chopped dates. No high-frutcose corn syrup. No guar gum. Not even any chocolate. I had to ration them. And he's been talking about Grandma's delicious and healthy cookies all week.

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