Brewin' Beer Concepts - Part 1: MGD on a diet.

This is the first installment of what I hope to be an ongoing segment that’s very close to my heart, and may be the possible demise of it in the future. While I don’t consider myself a beer connoisseur, I still love drinking it and taking in the advertising that pushes it down my throat.

From what I learned by reading and talking with creatives, alcohol advertising can be tricky because there usually are no real unique selling propositions in that category. Most are “me-too” products wearing different coats. But this is exactly the reason why some beer campaigns are so great. Not only do you have the space to do something creative without being too tied down to hard selling strategies, but you literally have to do something new or edgy to make the product stand out or else nobody will even bat an eyelid at your 30-rack.

So here’s my take on probably the most loved and hated advertising product category out there. I wanted to start it off with a line of beer that actually does have a bit of a USP, MGD 64. While it isn’t the only low calorie beer on the market, it’s one that sticks out for me the most probably since it falls under the Miller umbrella. I haven’t done too much independent research on MGD 64 (I prefer not drinking watered-down beer that’s watery to begin with) but I had an idea for it anyways. The concept behind this campaign is diet beer since it is a low-calorie, low-carb brew. Given MGD’s strong branding, I think there’s room for it when promoting MGD 64 so it landed in the tagline “MGD on a diet”. As always, I tried to keep it simple. Using twisted headlines with a straightforward picture of a bottle, the copy alludes to or pokes fun at dieting, eating disorders, and even alcoholism to generate smiles along with impressions. Who takes this beer stuff seriously anyways? 

When did brand names become verbs?

Was it when “searching” found a new name as masses of people started “Googling”, or was there a time before the non-evil empire took over the world?

I know genericized trademarks have been around since before my lifetime. The first and best example that comes to my mind is Kleenex. While having a brand name synonymous with a category or consumer action may speak wonders about the brand, I think it also has its downsides. I’m not here to discuss the pros and cons of a category sell though. Not only is that an endless downward spiral of a conversation better suited for uptight brand managers, but it may not even have anything to do with my rant about a slightly less-than creative trend I’ve been noticing lately.

I guess my real concern is whether or not we copywriters are becoming less creative. It seems like we can’t come up with taglines that capture a brand’s essence and compact it into a short but sweet line anymore. You see, more and more I’ve been hearing taglines that include the brand’s name and use it as a verb in the crucial sign-off statements that tie our messaging up in a neat little bow.

“The more you know, the more you Kohl’s, “When you Orbitz, you know”, and more recently, “When you own it, Prestone it” are all examples of what I have a gripe with. Although I like some of the executions of the ideas behind the messaging of these brands, I just can’t condone such misuse of the Advermerican-English language. Through some quick research on Google (an action that may be the anti-thesis of the argument I’m making here) I found I’m not the only one. Check out this facebook anti-fan page dedicated to the Kohl’s slogan http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=99764889194. It doesn’t have many anti-fans yet, but it’s about to have at least one more.

Are we to blame for this trend and the outcries against it, or is it a tactic that clients flock to in order to leverage their brand names and encourage repeated use of them with the hopes of turning their brands into actions? I want to blame clients but I’m not so sure I can. Maybe I should simply be asking if Google is the culprit. Because of the search giant, we don’t even have to know how to spell words right anymore as it corrects our bad grammar for us. Most people don’t think to open up a dictionary because they have a spell checker in their good friend Google. 

It’s possible that Google has done the same to creatives. Maybe we also became so lazy that we can’t even open up a dictionary, in this case to look up definitions of action words. It’s easier to just turn brand names into verbs like Google has done with “Googling”. Webster’s Dictionary recognizes the word; I wonder if I can find it in a thesaurus under the word “search”. Maybe I should Google it to find out. 

Not all toilet humor has to be complete shit.

A little punny I know, but bear with me. All sexism aside, it’s no secret that women are the main target for laundry detergents and bleaches such as Clorox. Typically, they are the ones purchasing them. But what about the bachelors out there? How do you reach out to guys’ guys who believe that fresh underwear means turning yesterday’s Hanes inside-out? Chillin’ in previous night’s tidy whiteys might be OK for a Sunday afternoon spent sitting alone on the couch. Once in a while, though, you have to cut the crap (sometimes literally) and wash your clothes. This campaign pokes fun at the times when we don’t quite make it to the toilet, with toilet humor of course. It gets them thinking about products and problems that their moms normally have taken care of all their lives in a way that’s both funny enough to get their attention and relevant enough to work.  

While putting this concept together, I thought it would be interesting to allude to the “accidents” we sometimes have without making it too obvious. Being too literal would not only take away the fun of the campaign, but it would also be in poor taste and just crude. The concept is: Fighting stains without staining your pride while using toilet humor. The execution: Using signs we are all familiar with and spinning their meanings around in a funny way. It seemed easy enough at first, but getting a decently funny third ad and still making sense proved to be conceptual constipation.

Mayhem put into contextual perspective

We've all seen the great spots the people at Leo Burnett and Allstate brought to us that remind us to protect ourselves from unpredictable mayhem. The reality of owning a car, we learn as our good friend Mr. Mayhem destroys our daily drivers, is that some accidents are unforeseeable; which is why we get insurance in the first place (unless you're into cheesy early 90s style CGI "Generals" who conveniently poop out insurance cards through your Epson.) But the sad truth is that although some accidents are hard to avoid, sometimes mayhem is riding shotgun with us. Sometimes we need insurance because we are the ones that cause accidents, and that IS avoidable. These next few roughs tap into that reality and remind people to be better drivers right when and where it matters, on the road. Influenced by "don't text and drive" billboards, the "Be Contextual" chapter in Tom Himpe's Advertising Next, and Allstate's safe driver discounts; these billboards serve as reminders to keep distractions at bay when driving while also acknowledging the fact that the billboards themselves are distractions.

Casting the first coal.

While it ultimately comes down to polished execution (something that my book needs more of), every good piece of advertising starts with a good idea. Throughout school, internships and freelance gigs, as an aspiring copywriter I have been taught to start with ideas first when approaching projects. That's why whenever I do any concepting, whether it's for my book or for a client, I start with a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. The initial product usually isn't pretty, even with the help of more than capable art directors. But within the smeared doodles, crumpled up loose leaf and incomplete jumbles of chicken scratch there usually is a diamond in the rough hiding somewhere.

Although the purpose of this blog is to post up rough concepts as they come to me so I can get feedback, find help to execute or just show off a good idea I have; I'd like to kick this blog off with something else. While these doodles and notes are still rough, they were good enough to become realities.