As someone who’s in the Ad biz, I always appreciate a good campaign. Especially one that’s not afraid to offend. Of course, risqué advertising is, as you might expect, risky. But, if you know who your market is, and you’re selling to them and trying to build loyalty instead of expand your market, then some of that risk will be rewarded.
Take for instance the New Zealand Pizza place, Hell Pizza. As their name might suggest, they are not afraid to take a risky brand position.
Below, I’m going to try and draw a parallel between Hell Pizza and the 2006 Democratic victory.
<image src=http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/hell.jpg>
If the image doesn’t show up, it can be found here.
It’s an image of Bush and the headline reads, “Hell. It’s too good for some evil bastards.” Their phone number even has 666 in it. I appreciate the detail.
As you might imagine, their ad and their brand isn’t for everyone. It says so right in the headline. It’s too good for some people. While you and I might appreciate the humor and the approach, the company does have its detractors.
Their latest campaign, for instance, promoted their “Lust Pizza.”
A promotion for a pizza company that saw about 170,000 condoms dropped in New Zealand letterboxes has now become the country's most complained-about advertising campaign.
You can’t buy that kind of publicity. But, while it might be great for your “base” or target consumer, it also pretty much guarantees that some people will never buy your product, even if they never received a condom.
What was interesting with the Hell Pizza campaign was that not all of the complainants had actually received the promotion, ASA executive director Hillary Souter said.
Rather, they had been told about it through email, or seen it in the media and contacted the ASA to convey their concern, she said.
Kind of reminds you of Focus on the Family, or one of those organizations that account for 99% of FCC complaints.
According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003-99.8 percent-were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group. This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified. Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints-aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS- were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1.
Get that? One group, one very small group accounts for over 99% of all complaints to the FCC.
This group, of course, is headed by Brent Bozell" and is very well funded. This funding gives them the power to create an illusion that they are bigger than they are. This illusion, in turn, gives them even more power to control the debate.
During the 2004 elections Bozell launched a 2.8 million dollar campaign to discredit the "liberal media". His column on the eve of the Republican National Convention attempted to smear John Kerry by accusing him of "soldier-smearing", for having reported, during his 1971 Congressional testimony, on atrocities being committed in Vietnam.
In short, organizations such as this have been quite successful. But, what does Hell Pizza know that the Democrats didn’t know up until 2006?
New Zealanders prefer Hell pizza
If faced with a choice between a multinational chain and a New Zealand chain, many parochial New Zealanders will opt to support the local company. Hell Pizza is a rapidly expanding home grown company that is more than just a thorn in the side of Pizza Hut and Domino’s. It overtook Domino’s in terms of value share and is creeping up on Pizza Hut.
There you have it. Despite the organized campaigns by conservatives, Hell Pizza is a growing company that’s giving huge multi-national companies a run for their money. I’ve never had a Hell Pizza, but I would sure like to try one.
Their success could be because of a number of factors. They may have a better product. They’re definitely local. And, they’re not afraid of their brand.
Not only are most Republican voters largely unaware of the details of the issues facing our nation, studies show that most are badly misinformed. In some part this is the fault of the media, but the larger reason is that when a person has bonded to a brand, it becomes part of their identity. They then develop a psychologically sophisticated and largely unconscious internal system to filter out and reject contradictory information.
Progressives, liberals, and Democrats have failed to apply this simple reality, and therefore have allowed conservatives to define our brands for us. The very sophisticated effort to do this has been led by Gingrich, Luntz, and Limbaugh, three men who understand the psychology of branding, and have used it to sell the Republican party and the word "conservative" to Americans with all the zeal - and all the cash - used by other famous brands like Coke, Levi's, and Wal-Mart.
This is not rocket science, and it's not a secret. There's an entire industry devoted to teaching these concepts (in which I worked for two decades).
So why haven't progressives and Democrats figured this out?
I believe Democrats, who, in my opinion, have a better product, finally understood what not being afraid of their brand meant in 2006 and that is why they won. People just tend to trust someone who is not afraid to be who they are, right or wrong.
Democrat John Yarmuth, a long-shot candidate in the spring, rode a wave of discontent with President Bush and the Iraq war yesterday, defeating five-term U.S. Rep. Anne Northup.
With all but one precinct counted, Yarmuth won by 3 percentage points -- 122,427 to 116,537 -- in the heavily Democratic 3rd Congressional District, which Republicans have held since Northup won the seat 10 years ago.
"What a great night it is for Democrats," Yarmuth told an energized and cheering crowd of supporters at the Seelbach Hilton hotel last night, declaring: "We ran as Democrats!"
Hopefully, Dems will look at the lessons learned in 2006 and from Hell Pizza and continue to strengthen their brand. As Bowers point out, we have an historic opportunity.