There’s a contentious topic I’ve avoided for some time, but I witnessed something on TV last night which has made me decide to break my silence and vent my spleen to all.
What on earth are the people at Weetabix thinking? Ice cream and chocolate sauce?! I completely appreciate the need to diversify and develop a product in order to appeal to as many new consumers as possible, while at the same time taking care not to alienate existing purchasers (hence the succession of grinning, uber-normal nuclear families in previous ads with each member a electing to pop a banana, “fruit compote” or even chocolate milkshake on top), but it’s not a dessert! It’s Weetabix – you pour milk on it (and optionally, sprinkle it with sugar) and hey presto! Keep it simple…
It seems Mr Weetabix has had a recent crisis of confidence regarding his flagship cereal and has briefed an ad agency to come up with a multitude of alternative ways to enjoy it. Judging by the bizarre concoctions promoted, I’d love to see the ideas they rejected – “why not smear half a tube of Macleans and administer a generous drizzle of HP Sauce on top?” Because it doesn’t go, that’s why. And neither does bloody ice cream.
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2 comments:
I quite agree with your summation of the weetabix campaign. What riles me even more is that their ad campaign managers wasted 30 seconds of my life telling me about oatibix, again with wonderful and pretty married couple having a barbecue on the side of the M5. This gives a better opportunity for a 60 tonne juggernaut to break down by the side of them and the man to announce that the ad campaigners have no imagination.
It would have been funnier if he had stopped the juggernaut at the side of the road and said 'I'm sorry to spray brake fluid and flakes of tyre rubber all over your freshly cooked hamburger, but I'm getting paid to tell you about oatibix!'
Imagine them being knocked down by 60 tonnes of oatibix. They could then use the slogan 'Oatibix...like having your bowels hit by a 60 tonne juggernaut!' That would have been a winner.
I’m all for the ‘scare tactics’ approach. A revised ad could depict slo-mo footage of the type normally seen in drink-drive campaigns of a juggernaut slewing through a makeshift picnic table. A grave voice would intone “If only they’d eaten Oatibix that morning, they wouldn’t have needed to stop, and this would never have happened. Don’t get pulverised by 60 tonnes of breakfast cereal hurtling along a busy carriageway where you’ve foolishly stopped for a mid-morning snack. Eat Oatibix and live. Okay?” They could kidnap Ray Winstone from Optivita for the voiceover.
Alternatively, in the spirit of honest advertising, they should adopt a more direct approach, like Cardboard-A-Bix, The-Compressed-Leftover-Bits-From-The-Factory-Floor-A-Bix or Turns-Your-Stools-To-Sludge-A-Bix.
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