Selling Tap Water!

It's getting stranger and stranger out there in the world of advertising and marketing. Ok... this sounds like a pretty boring way to start this blog... but bear with me. I wasn't going to talk about this sort of stuff, but the recent television ad by the Guinness company had me chuckling quietly.

Now we all know what Guinness is, so when they received several complaints recently about their sponsorship of the home nations rugby championship (alcohol and sports etc.), they responded with typical clever, cavalier style. Instead of defending their position or retreating grumpily, they produced a truly brilliant television advertisement. Gone was the glass of jet black nectar, to be replaced by a what they called Guinness Clear. Ordinary tap water. A whole 20 seconds on prime time telling the world to drink ordinary tap water. Not just tongue-in-cheek, because obviously the brand is strong enough still to convey the Guinness message, but also a wonderful anti-drink message (Moderate Your Drinking) as well.

You cannot really do anything except hold your hands up in surrender and laugh, no matter how you stand on alcohol sponsored sports events.

It reminded me of the OASIS energy drink poster campaign currently on our streets. Theirs is a direct slap at their own marketing and sales team, telling the public that they are only selling drinks so that they can make lots of money and acknowledging that their poster ads are dull and uninspiring. OASIS produced a whole series of garishly-coloured posters basically attacking themselves in as many humorous ways as possible.

And finally, I'm indebted to my nephew for spotting this one below. It must be really hard to be a toilet seat marketing manager. I mean, where do you start? Virtually, everything you might say could be construed as plain distasteful, or descending to vulgar, lavatorial humour. And yet... the marketing team for Choice Replacement Toilet Seat Shop (catchy company name) came up with something that is clever and guaranteed to produce an inoffensive snigger.

I always think it's great when companies can afford to have a snigger at themselves, especially when they attack their own stuff or sales teams. It takes a brave marketing manager to go down this route, but the British public are generally a weird bunch, who appreciate sarcasm and humour above all else, while hating overbearing pushiness, especially when it comes to getting into their purses and wallets!