The pushers are getting desperate, people.
The marketing campaign for Mars' new candy bar, 'The Fling' eagerly takes the advertising maxim "sex sells" to a whole new level of obvious. And, frankly, it's creepy.Even aside from the packaging, which is pink, glittery, and made me throw up a little inside my mouth, the campaign is something to behold. The commercials are racy, each bar is
referred to as a "finger," and the candy's motto declares that 'The Fling' is "naughty, but not that naughty" (another attention grabber: "pleasure yourself with a chocolate finger.")Presumably, the naughty bit applies because the bar has only 85 calories (only naughty girls eat real candy, duh) but the whole thing makes a girl wonder just what kind of naughty they're talking about.
And that is precisely the point.
It seems that ad campaigns become more and more bizarre during a recession, as companies try desperately to grab a share of the diminishing buying power of their audience with a no-holds-barred approach. In this case it's innuendo that's....well, not.
I like the Prius commercials that have the people as the landscape...and their message of fuel efficiency isn't bad either. But in this land of recession depression that commercial makes me want to buy a car :)
ReplyDeleteThis might be an explanation for this trend:
ReplyDeletehttp://cheapskate.blogs.time.com/2009/07/31/sex-jokes-the-great-and-free-recession-stress-relievers/?xid=rss-topstories
perhaps it's supposed to be a funny, sexy ad?
I have seen alot of these sex based kinda of ads hawking products that might provide comfort to those in these recessionary time. I recently summed it up in a blog for Huff Post.
ReplyDeleteThis is the new marketing spin! :)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-hall/sex-dating-the-recession_b_230040.html
I'd love to see the ads for Twinkies and Kit Kats from the Great Depression!