An Environmentally Friendly Cigarette? Are They Blowing Smoke Up Our….

Flipping through May’s issue of Toronto Life, I was rather surprised to be greeted with a full-page ad for du Maurier cigarettes.

But what held my attention was a marketing move so audacious that it was hard for a second to decide if it was demented genius or utter stupidity that inspired it.

The advertisement- which can be seen here via a piece in the Toronto Star - claimed that the brand had, in effect, gone green: “We have updated our packaging to reduce its impact on the environment,” the copy trumpets.

It then goes on to describe how the foil in the packaging had been replaced by paper “making it kinder to the environment.” Further, emphasis was placed on how the brand’s new cardboard packaging “meets standards supporting sustainable forest management.”

While that’s all well and good, didn’t any of the folks who signed off on this campaign see how ridiculous signing off on greenwashing a cigarette brand is?

I’m not against smoking or smokers – they have enough scorn to deal with, as well as an addiction that can be all-consuming – but I am really riled by the fact the company would consider the public so stupid that they would not see this as a blatant case of using a genuine concern about the environment in the name of making a few extra bucks.

I suppose it is admirable that the packaging is less harmful to the planet, it’s just a pity that the product itself still is.

Deep Down, Are We Pretty Shallow? Lessons Learned from the Susan Boyle phenomenon — or not…

BACKGROUND

Susan Boyle might put me out of a job – and I couldn’t be more delighted.

In case you were in a coma, Susan Boyle is an unprepossessing Scottish woman with a voice so beautiful it will literally make you weep — and she’s become the biggest thing since sliced bread via YouTube over the past five days. Her glorious performance of  the tremendously challenging ballad “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables on an episode of  Britain’s Got Talent has amassed nearly 13 million hits.

Back the 21st Century P.T. (that’s Pre-Twitter), it would have been the job of a professional communicator, likely of the publicist variety, to hype this woman — to remake her as a more suitable brand by spiffing up her image and promoting her to any and all media outlets.

Instead, one of the things remarkably talented woman has demonstrated — again– the power of social media and how effective the public itself can be in terms of calling attention to something or someone in whom they are interested. Instead via YouTube as well as discussion on Facebook, Twittter and FriendFeed, the woman has – via viral marketing that she herself did not set into motion – become a superstar.

Heck, she’s even generating press for Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher because they tweeted about HER performance.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

What it is about her that appeals is that she is (or at least seems) genuine. In this era of people who are Photoshopped and Botoxed to the point of near waxworkdom, this woman looks like an honest-to-goodness 47 -year-old lady. So strong is the expectation that our female talents now must be young, size two lovelies that one wonders if Janis Joplin– an off-kilter beauty with a killer voice — would be able to have a career today.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Perhaps the scariest thing of all is that she has revealed the ugliness in our society’s current attitudes about beauty and talent. Screen goddess Ava Gardner once joked “Deep down, I’m pretty shallow” – what a pity that this may have been revealed as the current dominant mindset for humanity.

Watching the audience’s initial mocking reaction to her demonstrates that. And it makes her victory all the more powerful in this era of narcissistic twit(terer)s.

And it makes me particularly worried about the world my daughter will inherit -  if the response of MTV’s bloggers can be taken as typical- that they could react to her talent in the following callow manner:

It wasn’t until this morning that I got wind of the Susan Boyle craze. Along with the rest of you cynics out there, I have to admit that I was too quick to judge and giggle before she opened her mouth. Not to follow the crowd, but she seriously gave me goose bumps and watery eyes. (I discovered that closing your eyes to her bushy brows and just allowing yourself to hear her voice is the trick.)Her talent is undeniable, regardless of her cat collection and homely frock.

Perhaps there is a future in public relations: Teaching narrow-minded narcissists how to relate as people. Perhaps?

iPhone? Not I.

With all the fanfare attached to it, you’d think the arrival of the iPhone in Canada was the Second Coming.

True, it’s been a long wait. Our neighbours to the south have had access to that sleek, touch-screen goodness for almost a year.

And frankly, like most Apple products, it is a beautiful, stylish piece of technology. Just look at it.

As with most of the items masterminded by brilliant British-born industrial designer Jonathan Ive, so deservedly feted by the Design Museum in London for his body of work, the result is innovative, clean and instantly covetable.

But like many others living in Canada, I will resist the siren song of this particular piece of technology.

Why Resist?

It’s not because of Apple. Indeed the powers-that-be at Apple are very canny about promoting the brand and making their products must-haves.

As noted by the still-in-beta-site BrandDoozie, Apple’s brand is powerful and has an amazingly loyal following:

“From their iconic logo to iPod’s campaign of gyrating silhouettes against a kaleidoscope of color, Apple is more than a brand—it’s a culture.”

And the fact they’ve managed to do that generally by buzz rather than by expensive marketing campaigns.

[Tangent: For an alternative take on Apple's brand that is quite intriguing, take a look at what Robert Scoble had to say last winter in a post entitled The Brand Promise of Apple.]

So, Why Resist Again?

Two words: Rogers Communications.

Rarely has a company with exclusive rights to a product managed to generate so much negative buzz for a hot commodity so quickly.

Because it is the only phone provider in Canada that uses the GSM network required by the device, Rogers is the only provider that can carry Apple’s 3G iPhone.

And unlike in the United States where unlimited data plans are offered, Rogers decided to lock iPhone purchasers into a three-year contract. And according to CTV.ca, the initial pricing was…less than ideal.

“The cheapest plan under that structure includes 400 megabytes of data, 150 minutes of weekday talk time and unlimited evenings and weekends for $60 per month plus fees and taxes.”

The Result?

A Major backlash. A website called ruinediphone.com sprang up and led to massive online petitioning, the organization of a protest rally and a campaign to get many Rogers customers to drop the corporation as a provider.

The protest has had an impact. As noted by the blog Load This with Steve Tilley, earlier this week Rogers decided to offer iPhone buyers the chance to choose their own standard voice plan and then add on a data plan allowing for 6 GB of mobile data a month for an addition $30.

But this has been a bit like throwing a bucket of water on a three-alarm fire. Gillian Shaw, of The Vancouver Sun, noted that this appeasement has not been entirely effective:

“The numbers of disgruntled consumers voicing their ire at www.ruinediphone.com continued to climb in the wake of Rogers’ announcement, aimed at cooling the controversy before today’s launch of the new phone.”

Who Was Smart About This?

Bell Canada. They looked at the negative publicity that Rogers was receiving and did something clever.

As of August 8th, they’re going to offer Samsung’s version of the iPhone, the Instinct (currently available in the US via Sprint), and they’re going to offer it with reasonable rates. Look at the comparison that the Globe and Mail offered on the two phones:

“The Samsung Instinct, which has many of the same features as the Apple iPhone, differs from the iPhone in one major way: Its monthly price plan, which will dramatically undercut the iPhone plan announced last week by Rogers Wireless.

A subscriber can…pay less than $40 a month for a modest voice plan accompanied by an unlimited Internet on Bell’s high-speed data network.”

Conclusion

So despite my love of Apple’s blend of solid technology and superior design, it looks like in this case, I’m going to have to wait and follow my Instinct instead of biting into Apple’s latest.

Part of it is the better pricing- that’s for sure. But a company clever enough to be responsive to another company’s disgruntled customers and to generate good PR by being more reasonable about rates?

They just seem smarter than the other guys. And a tad more reasonable.

What about you? Would you go along with Rogers’s terms to get the new iPhone? or would you be satisfied by a Samsung? What would/will you do?

“Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink Friends!” Viral Marketing for True Blood

Sometimes, if done well, a viral marketing campaign can build real anticipation for the product that it represents. The online websites and ARGs (alternate reality games) for J. J. Abrams-related projects like Lost and Cloverfield are especially complex and intriguing. [Please note that these are only a few links to those ARGs, provided by TV Squad and IGN.com respectively because each campaign involves quite a few sites.]

Combine them with The Dark Knight viral campaign and you have some prime examples of how the technique has been taken to near artform.

But It’s a tricky balance because sometimes the viral campaign turns out to be much better than the actual product that it represents (I’m looking at you The Blair Witch Project.

(And you might want to look at a really good article from Salon.com about the marketing of that film which has a different take on the phenomenon of viral marketing.)

What is Viral Marketing?

For anyone who doesn’t know about viral marketing, it is a word-of-mouth strategy that moves much more rapidly due to the speed of technology- spreads as fast as germs if not faster. Wikipedia, though admittedly not the most reliable source, has a very good explanation of the phenomenon:

“Viral marketing…refer[s] to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses….Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily…. [It] may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.”

Why It Works

It’s a very clever way to reach out to people because usually good viral marketing involves some sort of mystery or riddle that piques a person’s curiosity. Once intrigued, people will eagerly hunt down further information.

Often communities spring up around the more detailed ARG’s – sometimes people band together trying to find hidden clues and solutions.

Other times friends come together to try to crack the puzzle. But it is a technique that gets people invested — and talking about the campaign and the film/tv show/product that it is trying to promote.

True Blood: The Show

As many rabid Six Feet Under fans already undoubtedly know, its mastermind Alan Ball is back with a new HBO series set in the American South just after “Undead Americans” have revealed their existence.

True Blood is based on the smart, funny and sometimes sexy Southern Vampire novels authored by Charlaine Harris. They are fun and offer satisfying twists on the lore of the supernatural and the south.

True Blood: The Viral Marketing Campaign

The viral campaign focuses on “Tru Blood” the synthetic Japanese-created blood-substitute that allowed vampires to reveal their existence among the humans.

There’s a website here for that particular (fictitious) product.

And according to Cynthia Littleton at Variety.com, the folks behind the show even took out a full page ad in Daily Variety about vampires drinking responsibly: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink Friends.”

There’s also BloodCopy, a site supposedly covering the vampire revelation and integration into the general populace. It has video, textual and pictorial elements as well as a skype connection I haven’t yet tried….

Does It Work?

Is this intriguing?

For me, the answer is yes but I was already inclined to watch True Blood by virtue of the fact I love Alan Ball, I loved the books on which the show is based and I’m generally willing to give anything HBO develops a chance- they’ve had an excellent track record in terms of producing quality dramas.

But what about you?

Do viral sites such as these get your blood racing? Do they make you more eager to see something like True Blood or are they merely a fun distraction? Are they helping you hone in on a signal or are they just more bothersome noise?

[A special thanks to Ironic for motivating me to write this post with a comment he left on this blog in relation to the difference between splogs and ARGs. He's a wise man. Though he's not posting on this, he's posting some intriguing, thought-provoking and well-written stuff. Go see his blog HERE.]