clandestine advertisement campaigns

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Something I learned today; marketing agencies's hot new concept is to
hire actors that go in huis-clos places like in elevators then they
start talking to eachother hyping a product. Like a sort of viral fake
organic buzz. Of course they don't blow-up their cover at the end
to explain the schtick (they said it would ruin it, obv) so the "consumer" doesnt know what's up, and couldn't possibly complain about the content of the ad eaven if in other circumstances he would have.

― the Hegemon, Thursday, 24 October 2002 01:08 (twenty-three years ago)

"No sir, I DON'T like it"

http://www.toptown.com/dorms/xyno/pics/mrhorse.jpg

― the Hegemon, Thursday, 24 October 2002 01:19 (twenty-three years ago)

This is happening on the internet too of course. When they target kids forums it's a bit unsavoury. But really, I doubt it's such a new concept at all - I used to know a kid in high school who got paid to wear (casually) only the clothes of a certain athletic company. He was meant to just do it and not to talk about it, but that didn't quite work out for him and his big mouth.

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 24 October 2002 01:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Placing products in movies tv or on the street is that one thing but here they do an elaborate performance, I think they raised the level of deception a notch too much isn'it? the reporter said they also use beggars as walking ads. I'm not sure what I think about this one.

― the Hegemon, Thursday, 24 October 2002 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

That's all very well, but have I told you guys how much I love "He's a Woman", the hilarious new comedy series from Paramount Productions? It's going to be brilliant!!!

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 24 October 2002 08:35 (twenty-three years ago)

This strikes me as:

i) An expensive way to reach a very very small audience - "people who eavesdrop in lifts" is surely nobody's tarket market

ii) Very easily imitated by anti-ad people, and for free too. The 'problem' for clients is that posting in forums etc. involves a loss of control over the content of the ads. Take the guy who posted the Beck thread on ILM for instance - never posted since, might well have been a Geffen stooge for all we know. If he was what possible good would that thread have done Beck?

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 24 October 2002 09:00 (twenty-three years ago)

um, did i read this here or on slashdot? can't remember. anyway, microsoft recently got caught out using library photos in adverts claiming to be real people who decided to switch from mac to microsoft products. (turns out the real person worked for microsoft pr)

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/15/0044255&tid=109

they do this on british tv too. i can't believe the woman who they stop in the street who then gives 5 perfect bullet points pertaining to some financial product with crystal clear diction isn't an actress.

andy
who's kinda curious about those poster of rats with backpacks that are everywhere in west london at the mo.

― koogs, Thursday, 24 October 2002 09:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't there something about gettting women to go into bars and push a particular brand?

"Buy a girl a drink, sweetcheeks?"

"Barkeep, a drink for the lady."

"I'll have Bacardi (tm) rum. It's full-bodied yet smooth as silk." *million dollar smile*

― Miss Laura, Thursday, 24 October 2002 09:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I read some company somewhere has devised some fiendish software that trawls through messageboards building up profiles of the users.

Also, book publishers sometimes hire people to sit and read their books on the tube.

― Alfie (Alfie), Thursday, 24 October 2002 10:34 (twenty-three years ago)

yes but no matter how good/cynical they get at this sort of thing, we still dont actually buy the stuff based on such efforts...our purchases and brand choices are still rooted in instinct based on what we know to be tried and trusted brands, or what the ingredients are and if we're allergic to them, or what the conditions of the factory the products were made in are like, or just how much it costs compared to Brand Y

does advertising and ultra-marketing REALLY have the power and gravitas people constantly seem to assume it does? look at all the money Guiness have spent on their wonderful adverts over the years...and yet i still never go into a pub and order a pint of Guiness..and those who do love Guiness arent gonna be swayed much by arty conceptual 30 second films if they know they like the taste already...

so i'm not sure doing things in a more clandestine manner is going to be any more effective, the ad men are wasting their time and their lives!

― blueski, Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Guinness (for example) continues to sell, that's the point. And interesting you should mention Guinness, I know I don't like it, and yet I constantly feel that some day I should try it. The purpose of advertising is to let you know the product is there, constantly, all day as many times as you walk into a bar, to have it permanently in your head that every bar sells Guinness, that Guinness is a popular alcoholic beverage. And then there's always the chance that you go and buy it, or someone does.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan is right of course - the basic point of ads is to get a product into your consideration-set. Once it's there you will as he says probably try it eventually and then it's up to the product mostly. The reason these 'ads' are silly is purely and simply that they reach less people.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to say, for all the hatred of marketing etc, I find it pretty cool that Guinness have managed to succeed so much. I have yet to buy a pint of it but you've got to give them credit where it's due.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan, you've got to go to Ireland to try it. It's really creamy there (copyright Irish tourist board).

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah Ireland, I wonder what that mad place is like.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:53 (twenty-three years ago)

haha, he must think you're a Roman

― blueski, Thursday, 24 October 2002 11:55 (twenty-three years ago)

i just dont feel hatred for marketing anymore, i feel pity maybe...but i appreciate that people like Guiness and Tango get good adverts done because its entertaining if nothing else. the hatred is more for the people inside brand corporations who are more interested in profit rather than the welfare of those they exploit for the corporation's gain or whatever

Guiness was probably a bad example cos way before their adverts got so sophisticated they were already a national institution and very successful, even around the world (or is the point of their sophisticated campaigns to promote the brand to a global audience they hadnt reached before?)...but the point was it seems a bit daft they go to such great efforts just to get it into your 'consideration set' - all they can do is hope for the best...mind you, this happens with music (and everything else) too huh?

― blueski, Thursday, 24 October 2002 12:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Guinness's early adverts were great anyway - lovely art and typography, excellent design, good straightforward slogans (admittedly not ones you could get away with nowadays - "GUINNESS IS GOOD FOR YOU" um no its not)

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 24 October 2002 12:06 (twenty-three years ago)

the audience is not that small: people using elevators to go at work.
I remember they also tried it in the street. The reporter asked a victim what he thought of this and he said the actors were good and the show that was plugged sounded interesting! It's about manipulating emotions.

― the Hegemon, Thursday, 24 October 2002 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

There are thousands of studies showing that advertising does help sell the product. Otherwise so many companies wouldn't be spending fortunes on it.

If companies are paying the cool kids to wear (or whatever) their products, why has no one offered me money to not wear particular brands? Think of the damage if I went around pointing out that the clothes I was wearing were Dolce e Gabbana, or however it is spelt.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 24 October 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the Guinness and this talk of it has reminded me to buy some at the store after work tonight so maybe there is something to it.

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 24 October 2002 18:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't there something about gettting women to go into bars and push a particular brand?

My roomate in first year was paid to do that in residences. I had to buy the beer for him though cause he was 18. I got a picture of his side, all Molson products, from fridge to frisbee to sheets to cups, plates, forks and spoons.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 24 October 2002 19:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I've seen Guinness used as an argument towards "Advertising - It Works!", in that it is obv. a very popular drink around here, and if all the advertising stopped tomorrow, you can't imagine it dropping out of the "consideration set". But when they do drop their advertising budget, the sales drop too. Or so a guy down the pub told me.

There's a pub on Dorset Street that still has an enormous clock on the outside surrounded by the Guinness mascots: Handyman, Seal and Ostrich.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 24 October 2002 19:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually this tactic is ancient. It used to be used to promote department store sales and such - "oh did you hear about the sale on ladies' dresses at so-and-so's?"

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 24 October 2002 20:11 (twenty-three years ago)

"meal-in-a-glass"

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 24 October 2002 21:27 (twenty-three years ago)

The audience for each "performance" is still going to be tiny unless the elevators in America are really fucking huge (which wouldn't surprise me).

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 24 October 2002 21:30 (twenty-three years ago)

" i remember they also tried it in the street. The reporter asked a victim.." hahaha brilliant use of the word victim.

― donna (donna), Thursday, 24 October 2002 22:14 (twenty-three years ago)

ooooh face, the link to my nice horsey picture aint workin no mo :(
there again then
http://www.geocities.com/jupiter_brain2000/mrhorse.jpg

Oh yes Tom many elevators here are roomy etc and.. hey! I'll stop doing all the thinking for the ennemy :) You are absolutely right, couldn't agree more. And I really liked your idea "Very easily imitated by anti-ad people, and for free too. " Darn rational, action-based optimism, I'll propose the project to the Socially Acceptable Terrorist Actions group http://www.atsa.qc.ca/document.asp?v=a&id=47

(p.s. a group like that should exist in every city)

― the Hegemon, Friday, 25 October 2002 01:52 (twenty-three years ago)

the reason they are so roomy is that they need space for the washing machines which are not in our apartment buildings

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 25 October 2002 04:28 (twenty-three years ago)

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