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Dollar Shave Club viral video

Do we hate Dollar Shave Club’s viral video?

By on March 7, 2012 in advertainment, advertising, creativity, responsible or not?, word of mouth

This being the Responsible Marketing Blog, you might think a video with an F-Bomb in it might attract our ire, right? Wrong. Watch this: There are plenty of things we don’t like: Racism. Bigotry. Violence. Corporate greed run amok. Comic sans. But boring marketing is irresponsible, and boring Dollar Shave Club is not. This is f**king brilliant. [...]

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Responsible or not? CIT’s college recruiting video

By on February 20, 2012 in advertising, creativity, responsible or not?, videos, viral marketing

College advertising is usually so, well, meh. Not so with this ad entitled “It’s a Snap” from filmmakers Henry & Aaron, done with full creative license for their alma mater, Western Australia’s Central Institute of Technology. The video has gone viral, leaving some to say it has changed the face of college recruitment advertising. So, [...]

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So tasty: Schweddy Balls Ice Cream

By on September 7, 2011 in corporate responsibility, love it or hate it?, responsible or not?, word of mouth

Ben and Jerry’s has announced a new limited edition batch of ice cream, “Schweddy Balls.” For the uninitiated, here’s the SNL skit it’s based upon: It’s funny. Really, really funny. Surely some people will be offended, right? Of course. Some people will are offended when you say “darn,” too. I’d argue “Schweddy Balls” is responsible. [...]

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BP combating bad press with paid search

By on June 7, 2010 in advertising, corporate responsibility, digital marketing, no trust, responsible or not?, search

Search for “oil spill” on Google and you’ll get this: Click here to enlarge On Bing you’ll get: British Petroleum · www.BP.com/GulfOfMexicoResponse Get Info about the Gulf of Mexico Response Today Yahoo: BP – Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping. www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse Normally, I’d say this is Responsible [...]

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Responsible or not? Nike resurrects Earl Woods

By on April 8, 2010 in advertising, authenticity, ethics, message responsible, responsible or not?, videos

Just in time for Tiger Woods’ return to golf at The Masters, Nike has released the following ad featuring the voice of Tiger’s deceased father, Earl: Here’s what Earl is saying: Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find [...]

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Responsible or not? Audi’s “Do Your Part”

By on October 6, 2009 in advertising, environmentally responsible, greenwashing, message responsible, responsible or not?, videos

It ain’t so easy being green. Unless, of course, you buy a clean diesel from Audi. That’s the message of this Audi A3 “Do Your Part” advert: View on YouTube I get the idea: Show you can be environmentally responsible without having to put yourself out. You can have it all. Here’s one point of [...]

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Evian’s hip-hop roller babies: Responsible or not?

By on July 9, 2009 in advertising, creativity, environmentally responsible, responsible or not?, videos, viral marketing, word of mouth

By now, you’ve probably heard about Evian‘s new “live young” campaign featuring the roller babies. You haven’t? Well, now you are in the know: There’s a lot to like here: It’s fun, unique, the CGI was done well and who doesn’t love Rapper’s Delight? It’s the type of video you can hardly resist hitting the [...]

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Is Burger King’s “Square Butts” ad responsible?

By on April 10, 2009 in creativity, message responsible, responsible or not?, sex sells, videos, word of mouth

Last night, a friend from high school sent me this question via Facebook: Can you explain why ANYONE (let alone Burger King) would think it a good idea to adapt “I like Big Butts” to market a children’s meal? Here’s the ad in question: Extended version This is one of the classic Responsible Marketing questions [...]

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The Southwest Airlines Bikini Controversy

By on March 10, 2009 in boycott, creativity, promotion, responsible or not?, socially responsible

Remember a few years ago when a woman was thrown off of a Southwest Airlines plane because her outfit was too revealing? Imagine her surprise when Southwest launched the “SI One,” to promote Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition last month. The airline expected controversy, but probably didn’t expect how polarizing the image would be. A few [...]

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Skittles Twitter homepage: Responsible or not?

By on March 3, 2009 in authenticity, branding, responsible or not?, social media, social networking, word of mouth

Skittles, the chewy, fruit-flavored candy from Mars, Inc. has jumped into social media in an innovative new way: They have coded their website so their navigation now floats over three of the most popular social media websites. Skittles.com is now nothing more than a navigation box floating over the Twitter search results for the term [...]

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A-Rod and Kobe and Phelps, oh my!

By on February 20, 2009 in ethics, morality, responsible or not?, videos

It was a risk when Activision cast four of the world’s most recognized athletes to dance in their underwear for a video game that that wasn’t sports-related. Imagine it: The greatest Olympian of all time (at least by medal count), the best basketball and baseball player today, and the person that has almost single-handedly popularized [...]

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Is Budget’s PrivacyGuard offer responsible?

By on February 17, 2009 in deceptive marketing, responsible or not?

Why would anyone want a free credit report from FreeCreditReport.com when Budget has partnered with PrivacyGuard to pay you $10 to sign up for ID theft and credit monitoring? Well, as we discussed here before, the credit report from FreeCreditReport.com isn’t free and as you might guess, the PrivacyGuard offer has plenty of strings attached, [...]

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VitaminWater or the CSPI: Who do you believe?

By on February 6, 2009 in advertising, deceptive marketing, ethics, responsible or not?, socially responsible, who do you believe?

The Coca-Cola Company is being sued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest for deceptive claims regarding it’s VitaminWater product line. Coke markets VitaminWater as a “healthful alternative to soda by labeling its several flavors with such health buzz words,” and claims they “variously reduce the risk of chronic disease, reduce the risk [...]

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The Most and Least Responsible Super Bowl ads

By on February 2, 2009 in advertainment, creativity, polls, responsible or not?

Once again, the Super Bowl was indeed super, but how about the ads? A few ads brought sustained belly laughs, others brought groans. But which were responsible, and which weren’t? For review, visit my Super Bowl XVIII ads page. Cast up to five votes in following polls. If you’d like to weigh in on any [...]

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Decaf in the afternoon? Not at Starbucks

By on January 26, 2009 in responsible or not?, social media, social networking, word of mouth

I had a Twilight Zone moment this afternoon at my local Starbucks when I ordered my decaf drip coffee and was told the Seattle-based coffee chain no longer brews decaf in the afternoons. You read that right: A coffee shop that doesn’t offer decaf in the afternoon—the largest coffee shop chain in the world, mind [...]

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Behold, the Facebook Friend Spamming tool

By on January 22, 2009 in privacy, responsible or not?, social media, social networking, usability, viral marketing

It was bound to happen. With a little help from the programmers and usability gurus at Facebook, I spammed my friends, colleagues, business associates, people who’ve considered hiring Outsource Marketing, and everyone else in my Gmail address book that didn’t have a Facebook account yet. I’m not talking about Facebook application developers making it next [...]

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I’m lovin’ it? McDonald’s buys love; fesses up

By on January 8, 2009 in authenticity, deceptive marketing, launch, responsible or not?, videos, word of mouth

With some fanfare, on December 23rd McDonald’s launched a new concept store in Japan called Quarter Pounder, a restaurant selling—you guessed it—only Quarter Pounders. Here’s an amateur video of the opening taken by a customer that was there: 15,000 people attended the store’s record-setting opening, but not all of them were there for the artery-clogging [...]

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Responsible or not? Using the dead to sell

By on December 30, 2008 in advertising, casting responsible, cause marketing, creativity, execution responsible, message responsible, morality, responsible or not?, socially responsible, videos

On Christmas Day, John Lennon returned from the dead. Well, his image and voice were resurrected to help the One Laptop Per Child Foundation “OLPCF” and it’s raised a few eyebrows (and hackles). If you haven’t heard about the OLPCF, here’s a summary: It’s an education project, not a laptop project. Inexpensive, durable, networked laptops [...]

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Pepsi uses suicide to sell soda pop

By on December 16, 2008 in creativity, responsible or not?, socially responsible

One is the loneliest number, and since Pepsi Max only has one calorie, maybe that little calorie should just take its own life, right? The following three ads were created by BBDO in Düsseldorf, Germany: +enlarge +enlarge

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Responsible or not? Burger King’s Whopper Virgins

By on December 8, 2008 in responsible or not?, socially responsible, videos

The idea is simple, really. Since everyone in America has heard of or tried a Whopper and the Big Mac, conduct taste tests in locations that have never even heard of Burger King or McDonald’s signature products. And that’s what Burger King did—took their taste tests to remote locations in Romania, Greenland and Thailand. Here’s [...]

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