We Once Wore Armour

The big debate these days is how to market to the increasingly difficult to define male market. Marketers have thrown men into two bland polar opposite distinctions. There is the Metro, who is the moisturizing, salon-dwelling, cuticle clipping kind of guy and the Retro who sits around, drinks beer, drives a Charger and scratches a lot. Despite what people think, men are actually more complex than that. Dads in particular, have been stereotyped into being either the dumb clueless fool or the deadbeat. It seems as though the white, middle aged, domesticated father is the only one left that is safe to mock in our overly politically correct media environment.

Beer companies are having a hard time breaking out of the ‘let’s go off to the cabin and surround ourselves with buxom babes’ mould, and it has been done to death. Sure guys like cabins, and guys like buxom babes. But what is it about the emasculation by media that is not being addressed here.

Good ol’ KesselsKramer have a great ad to hit this nail on the head.

Call of the Wild

Pay attention, they make reference to every big name beer ad out there in the process, from Guiness’ Evolution to Carlton Draught’s Big Ad, as well as my favourite playstation ad -Golfers.

Some Good Ads

These are funny.

Washington Lotto

Ethical Advertising: Studies show that CSR mandates go unrecognized

Taken from this week’s Marketing Magazine.

Good Corporate Deeds Go Unrecognized.

The latest Ipsos Reid poll states that 68% of Canadians pay attention to issues related to Corporate Social Responsibility, however only a third are aware that companies that have made a commitment to CSR actually have official policies in place. 72% of companies have these policies in place, so how does one explain the discrepancy?

A lack of awareness…

Yet research does show that consumers do pay attention to these issues care about companies’ activities.

So what is a company to do? Advertise, naturally.

Ethical Advertising and Dove

I saw an interesting presentation on Friday at the BCAMA conference.

It featured Janet Kestin, who happens to write one of my favourite columns at ihaveanidea.org called Ask Jancy.

Janet is partially responsible for the Real Beauty campaign by Dove.

This is a campaign that I always thought was something of a sham until I heard them speak.

The concept is to show women's bodies as they actually are, not the size 0 or size 2 model body types that women apparently strive for, hence Real Beauty.

I always thought it was a gimmick to tap in to the most common insecurity of all: body dysmorphic disorder.

However, after speaking to girls about it, and listening to Janet, it appears that their are deeper issues at play, and that there is some genuine concern in place here. Women, it seems, love this campaign.

Just another example, I suppose, of how you just won't 'get' certiain ads if you aren't the target market.

The biggest thing I liked about the campaign after hearing the presentation was that they don't airbrush the models.

Pranksters

Here is a great stunt pulled by a group called Improv Everywhere.

They rounded up 80 people and dressed up in the Best Buy employee uniform of royal blue shirts, khaki pants and a belt and infiltrated a Best Buy.

With 80 new Best Buy employees standing around, customers had plenty of people to ask for directions and help, which they were happy to give. When real employees asked them why they were there, they would say they were waiting for their girlfriend/boyfriend.

They snuck in video cameras as well to film the fiasco, it's pretty funny.

Improv Everywhere