I may work in marketing, but my mom outrage meter is stuck on high with the recent wave of marketing campaigns that tie products to drugs. I am wondering how these marketers can sleep at night.
The latest product using the “cool like drugs” approach is an energy drink mix. The product packaging, advertising and merchandise celebrates the drug culture with a generous sprinkle of half-naked women who look stoned. The product is packaged in a vial along with a mirror and a fake credit card.
I imagine that the marketing strategy pitch sounded something like this …
The energy drink category is highly competitive. We can’t match the big boys in ad spending so we need a guerrilla marketing strategy.
Let’s go so far over the line of decency and common sense with our marketing that we will stir up a hornet’s of protests from parents and medical professionals. The outcry will turn into free publicity when it gets picked up by traditional news outlets and non-traditional media like blogs.
The second wave of publicity will be our response. We’ll respond to parental attacks by pointing out that our product is only for adults over 18. Conveniently, we stuck that message on the label to really entice the minors, but it will really work for us here. We’ll get tons of immature clowns on social networks like Myspace to support our cause and label our detractors as zealots. Then we’ll have the potential for huge viral spread of our brand name and our website. Once those early adopters get our viral message out there, we’ll be able to hit the jackpot with the “wannabe kids” who follow the fads.
The press will be ugly, but remember, we don’t care whether the noise about our brand is positive or negative … the buzz is all good. As long as people are talking about our product, it’s good. As a bonus, every time we launch our product in a new market, the outcry will start all over again. So it’s sustainable buzz.
I refuse to mention this product’s name or link to its website … that will only help them get visibility in the search engines. In an interview with a Milwaukee TV station, the product creator Logan Gola says, “I make absolutely no apologies for our marketing campaign.” To upset parents, he reportedly responds, “You’re not in our target market. Get a life. Move on. Focus on something that’s more important.”
This product isn’t even the first energy drink marketed with drug references. There’s another energy drink named for an illegal substance. The FDA ordered it off the shelves in 2007, but it has since returned with its name intact. Even Hershey got into the act by developing mints packaged in dime bags. So is this a trend?
Parents, talk to your kids about drugs early and often. Apparently, it’s not just sex that sells .. now it’s drugs too.
Tags: drug references, energy drinks, marketing, shock value
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February 28th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Thanks for this. I am a bit outraged by these things myself, as I have been outraged in the past by advertising that shows young people driving fast and dangerously on crowded streets in your basic passenger cars. And we wonder why kids take drugs and street race? They do it because greedy morons tell them it is cool, and detached remote parents let that message triumph.
Kermit
February 28th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Evidently Logan Gola doesn’t understand that as parents we pay these kids (who have a so-called life) their allowance. So without money these kids won’t be buying this crap. So it really does boil down to whether or not the parents approve. I say ignorant marketing.
February 28th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
This is a very disturbing activity that is not just contained in America.
All youths living in a semi-democratic location face this chaotic method of advertisement that forces them into a severe form of debt and addiction.
Sex sales everywhere and the children grow up much faster than we dare to believe.
Great article dealing with another drastic change to children loss of youth.