pepsi
This is great from Cracked Magazine: 9 Corporate Attempts At “Edgy” That Failed Hilariously – it’s a list of advertising campaigns that try to pull off the slightly ‘left of centre’ communication that has worked every now and then. With all the hype around viral marketing these days, it’s probably not a bad idea to keep this list at the back of your mind when pitching new concepts to your clients.
Somehow you’ve got to wonder how some of these conversations went down. Picture the boardroom of Pepsi before the ’suicide’ campaign:
“Johnson! What concept have you come up with?”
“Sir, kids these days are sick of the wallpaper advertising we’re thowing at them. They’re not buying it. They’re just not that into it, sir.”
“What are they into?”
“It’s called ‘Emo’ sir.”
“What? Johnson?”
“Emo. It’s the new thing. Sir, kids don’t want friendly. They don’t want fun.”
“Well, what do they want Johnson?”
“They want to kill themselves, sir.”
Enter the Pepsi Max ‘Lonely Calorie’ campaign, picturing a cartoon character committing suicide in a variety of different ways. It’s awesome stuff. It’s not just a little out there – it pushes every boundary created in advertising.
I’m pretty sure Johnson is hitting the streets right now with a briefcase full of printed CV’s. You’ve got to hand it to him though – he must be a pretty persuasive guy to get it from idea to execution.
[Thanks Shaun for the link]
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