Why do we even make commercials anymore?
Will it sell more burgers? Who can say. That’s frankly all that matters in the world of Jack In The Box advertising, as I’m sure their franchisees would agree. So let me briefly step into the somewhat unfamiliar role of Ad Critic – a sub-species of social media-ite that I’ve often ridiculed – and view their latest ad through the lens of social anthropology.
Here goes.
- Idiotic user generated content made and – despite the supposed presence of good judgment or self-censorship – posted on YouTube.
- Millions of views ensue.
- The CEO of the company (the one with the large head) views this video incredulously along with a brainless and breathless underling, wondering aloud, “Why do we even make commercials anymore?”
- Brainless (the payoff!) says, “Because you like to be in them?”
Is it a good spot? Who knows. Ask me when I’ve seen the incremental spike in sell-through. What sort of commentary does it make on the state of marketing in general?
- Views aren’t what we’re after. A “viral” video is only a good thing if it makes your brand look good. It’s a great thing if it actually pushes people to buy more of your stuff. If it does neither, it’s a snicker and little more.
- Millions of views ensue. The ubiquity of online video hasn’t made us smarter. That much is for sure.
- The CEO of the company – who stands in for a good swath of management in offices across the globe – doesn’t really understand what advertising (let alone marketing) is or does. “Why do we even make commercials anymore,” tells us that Jack thinks advertising is about “lots of people seeing what we put on TV.” Oy. My huge, round, white head hurts.
- Brainless is no better.
Why do I care about this? Because it crystallizes some of the laziest management (and marketing) thinking of the moment. And I never want to let a stupid comment go unpunished. Yes, it’s a funny commercial. Yes, it’s not meant to be social commentary. But it is, to a very small degree, and to quote our current president, I felt this was, “A Teachable Moment.”
Marketing is the art and science of predicting human behavior – namely predicting which stimuli will make our select group of humans buy more of our stuff, now and later. The money we spend in marketing should, in a rational world, have an impact and be best used here in marketing and not somewhere else, like adding an additional salesperson in Minneapolis or adding IT staff.
It isn’t about giggly viral videos that make us guffaw. If you think that’s what marketing is, go get a job in sales. I hear they’re looking for somebody in Minneapolis.
Have you been drinking? 😉
You mean marketing isn’t just about creating viral videos that do nothing for sales and might even hurt the brand? Puhleeese, next thing you’ll tell me is that Facebook isn’t a marketing strategy… 😉
Very thoughtful of you to place yourself in “our” shoes, Mr. Denny. I have to agree with you about this ad somehow being the epitome of all that is wrong with marketing. It begs the question, “If this is what marketing a product is all about, what the hell do Marketing majors spend their time studying in college?” I think we tend to forget the fine line that you seek to re-establish between marketing and sales. Marketing is the strategy behind how to place/pitch a product based on what a company has identified the current tastes in the market to be. Because a little research goes a long way, the idea seemed to be that a prudent company would “study” its market before introducing a product, rather than adopting a trial-and-error approach like this, where if “wacky” doesn’t sell, then it’s back to the drawing board to come up with “wackier” stuff. There’s nothing wrong with the ad if you consider that it describes the product, and tells you where to get it if you would like to try it. All the other stuff, the CEO questioning “Why do we advertise?” and the seemingly juvenile shenanigans are just by the way, and don’t even mislead. They’re just absolutely unnecessary. If Jack-in-the-Box wanted to introduce a new sandwich like this, they were probably better off introducing it at select outlets as a “special” and checking to see how the market responded to it over a specified period of time. This wasn’t even some kind of “guerrilla marketing” tactic, just a brief but nonetheless painful assault on the senses.
@Tom & Gunes: Yes and no, respectively. Wait, no and yes.
@Rohin: truthfully, I’m completely ambivalent about the ad creative. To paraphrase the late actor, Alec Guiness, “I’m not the customer they’re looking for.” But when a piece of pop culture appears that reinforces a negative stereotype that makes me cringe the worst, it’s always worth a blog post. I appreciate your stopping by!
I just wish the food you got at Jack in the Box (or any fast food chain for that matter) even remotely resembled the products presented to us by the marketers. Fast food never looks like anything like the marketers promise.
Still, Jack is awesome.
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