I guess you shouldn't have wasted your time.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Date: 14-FEB-2003 11:54:30
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Probably can't find it
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
InfoTrac Web: Gen'l Reference Ctr Gold.
Source: Nation's Restaurant News, July 8, 2002 v36 i27 p14(1).
Title: Agency 'admits' lying, goes on to create clever parody for
Wahoo's. (Marketing & Media).(Brief Article)
Author: Gregg Cebrzynski
Subjects: Restaurant industry - Marketing
Companies: TDA Advertising and Design - Marketing
Locations: United States
SIC code: 5812
Organizations: Wahoo's Fish Taco - Marketing
Business Collection: 141U4928
Electronic Collection: A89158472
RN: A89158472
Full Text COPYRIGHT 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder.
Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Advertising agencies lie. Tacos don't." I'm not kidding. That's exactly what
it says in a new print ad for Wahoo's Fish Taco, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based
chain with 32 units in Colorado and California.
And get this: An agency dreamed up this ad, not some disgruntled consumer who
finally had had it up to here with misleading ad claims.
TDA Advertising & Design of Boulder, Colo., is the agency, and the ad is part
of its first campaign for Wahoo's in the Colorado market. The intent is
obvious. By taking an "anti-advertising" approach -- it's an old technique --
the sincerity and credibility of the ad is supposed to be stronger. And
because all consumers "know" that agencies lie, the ad plays to their
"knowledge." Thus the consumers feel as if, finally, someone is being honest,
and, by golly, they'll reward that honesty with a visit to the advertiser's
place of business.
I like self-deprecating ads -- when they're entertaining. This one ranks low
in entertainment value, but a TV spot in the campaign takes a similar
approach, and it's hilarious.
It's called "Product Placement Cup." The spot opens with a shot of a standard
Pepsi cup and a voice-over: "For a limited time at Wahoo's you can get a
Hollywood Product Placement Pepsi Collector Cup free with any purchase of a
Pepsi."
The camera cuts to a couple of nerdy lads by the beverage counter as a smiling
employee thrusts a Pepsi cup toward the lens, and the voice-over continues:
"Get the same soda that you've seen as a gratuitous product placement in such
movies as 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' 'Flashdance' and 'Ferris Bueller's
Day Off.'"
[Graphic omitted]One of the nerdy lads fondles his cup in a way that would get
him in trouble if his mother saw what he was doing, and he says, "Flashdance
product placement collector cups are cool."
"Very cool," his friend says.
The spot ends with a shot of three identical Pepsi cups next to a takeout bag.
"Collect all three," the voiceover says.
This is really a spot for which my written description is inadequate. You have
to see the dazed, stupid looks on the lads' faces and hear how they deliver
their lines. It's as if the director said, "OK, fellas, just make something up
as you go along and don't worry that your voices sound as nerdy as you look."
And that shot at the end is a clever way to wrap up a spot that not only is an
entertaining parody but also sells a product.
Wahoo's, I'm told, has been associated with surfer dudes and their culture
since the first restaurant opened in California in 1988. The chain has tried
to maintain an irreverent image befitting that culture. That's the reason for
the approach in the print ad and "Product Placement" as well as other TV
spots.
In "Red Wings Do Suck," the camera focuses on a Wahoo's employee as he
explains what all those stickers are doing on the restaurant walls. Surfers
started putting them up in the first restaurant, he says, and the tradition
continues. A sticker saying "Mean People Suck" is prominent in the shot, and
even though none of the stickers ever is taken down, he has to make an
exception.
"We know some mean people who don't suck," he tells the off-camera
interviewer, "so this one's got to go."
"What about that 'Red Wings Suck' sticker up there?" the interviewer asks.
The employee turns to the camera and says: "We had a meeting about that, We
decided that the Red Wings do suck."
I guess they do. Unless the agency is lying.
-- End --
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