Thursday, March 13, 2008

sexiest commercials

For those of us who do not remember, a while back, Paris Hilton teamed up with Carl's Jr. and did an ad campaign where she is wearing nothing but a skimpy swim suit to say the least and is seen shimming and shaking all over a Bentley with a burger in her hand. Maybe a strong promotional tactic for men however i find it distasteful and completely irrelevant to Carl's Jr. brand. The ad campaign did get a lot of publicity, however was also quickly pulled due to all the negative hype the company received for such a distasteful ad to be polite. This is a perfect example of a company not listening nor targeting their appropriate audience. Sex in our society does sell, however as seen in this example, if the advertisment is not aligned with the company's brand, product, etc. the advertisment will not be succussful. Sure, Carl's Jr. received greater media exposure for this ad than they had ever expected however at the end of the day, the ad was pulled and consumers did not remember Carl's Jr. and their wonderful food, but rather a blond e heiress shaking her body over an expensive car. Their advertising dollars were wasted and their sales did not increase as a result.
I for one am all for sexy ads if that is what your product is known for. For example Guess, I see their ads as appropriate for the image they are trying to portray. They are known and have been known to push the limits on how low your jeans can ride, the clothes they sell are designed to be sexy. However in a case where the company has not been seen as sexy nor does it represent their brand in any way, then obviously their advertising departments needs to get back on track with what the company's target audience to actually have a successful ad campaign.