The Future of Marketing?

[Smitty]

www.coqroq.com/

Take a look at what/who the site is actually promoting. Then listen to the lyrics... I haven't, but I heard enough from one of our local radio talk show guys.

If this is the future of marketing then lock up your daughters. (And I'm in media & communications!)

Smitty

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi Smitty

If this is an advert for BK then IMO it is pretty lame (although I may be showing my age, albeit prematurely). Or have I read this incorrectly and this is a band sponsored by BK? I couldn't listen to the lyrics for more than 20 seconds without upsetting my wife, the cats, the neighbours.....

As you say, "if this is the future of marketing..." but it raises an interesting point. As we become immune to traditional forms of advertising due to saturation, then we are going to see a greater reliance on more obscure / less obvious advertising techniques in future. We have already seen a siginificant decline in the average age of the target market, the introduction of micro-marketing, advertisments dressed up as news / facts / editorial, people selling advertising space on their bodies etc etc. What's next? This reality was brought to you by .... in fact, we have already seen the use of catchy slogans applied to questionable foreign policies from some countries (but we won't go there).

And to close out my rant, intensive marketing campaigns are no substitute for shoddy products, ideas or workmanship.

But that's just my opinion, Andrew

 

[Smitty]

Unfortunately, it's 100% Burger King. But my voice can be heard: I'll never patronize them again (and I actually "liked" some of their crap on road trips).

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with advertisers trying to increase their business, especially as that's my line of work, but I think that some do so at the expense of ethics and morality...Teenagers are a very vulnerable bunch and to exploit that vulnerability is irresponsible. It's akin to some of the scumbags who hard sell useless products to the elderly. If you had a 16 year old daughter, what would you infer from this (I have 15 years to go thankfully):

http://www.coqroq.com/lyrics3.html

Granted I just showed the site to my wife, who's an Internet Marketer and she laughed her *** off..."Target Marketing" at its best!..." The key word for me was "target".

I too see the humor in it, but there's a time and place for everything college )...The problem is the target...I have a problem with all of the obese kids I see running (running isn't really a good word for it...) around today, not to mention the ubiquitous piercings, tattos, and general lack of respect for pretty much anything, especially themselves. I hold parents to blame, not schools, advertisers, etc., though. Note that this is also a public advertising campaign, not a band that someone has to go to the local cd store to actually buy the album. If Burger king didn't tout itself as a family type spot, I suppose it would be different. There's a very gray area here. I.E. I work for a public corporation, whose product is delivered to neighborhoods on a weekly basis involuntarily; in our circulation area you get it whether you want it or not. Quite often we get letters/calls from a reader(s) who wants to complain about the bikini clad bint on the front cover ad for a local tanning salon. We tout ourselves as a "family publication", but in the interests of sacred revenue we accept those $$$ and tell the reader to **** off...Personally, I have no problem with the ads :wink: , but hold yourself to the standard that you claim to have.

You're right, our society(s) has changed, therefore, "This reality was brought to you by"...none other than us. Advertisers have a responsibility to their stakeholders, anything else seems to pass by the wayside. But it's up to us to find it acceptable or not and to pass that to our kids. And I felt this way before I had one!

Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a prude...I've lived a pretty wild life, and still try to whenever I can, but whether I'm 1000 feet up a rock or stuck in traffic, I also have a few simple rules that I follow and my daughter will as well: "Yes Sir/Ma'am, No Sir/Ma'am, Thank You, May I, and Please".

But nowadays that pretty much seems like pissing in the wind.

I guess my legs'll be wet for a while to come.

Smitty