Douglas Holt and James Twitchell
Well, OK, Doug, I may have driven us into the mud. In the spirit of the piece, let's abandon the rig and get on to something else quick! Before someone notices.
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StumbleUponBut let's not also abandon the Absolut bottle. There is a great quote from adman Rosser Reeves. I'm not getting it exactly right, but he's out on a boat with a client. And the client is complaining. Why is he paying Reeves a 15 percent commission when Reeves' agency is just running the same ad over and over? The client says, "What the hell am I paying your people to do?" And Reeves says without missing a beat, "To keep your people from changing the ad."
Agencies think they must change things. After all, they are creative. So let's create, they say. Let's show the client we are clever. But most ad agencies are not very good at what they do. They are clever, not smart. They move way too fast. Coke could have stayed with "the pause that refreshes" forever. Ditto "the real thing." But oh, nooooo ... they have to be innovative. Now they are paying the price.
Vodka is really interesting. It is very much like tap water--tasteless and interchangeable. So the value has to be added; the taste comes in the advertising. When you drink vodka, you really drink the advertising, slurp the story. So once you get the "taste," like Absolut has, you should leave it alone. Just keep everlastingly at it. Repetition, sorry to say.
I know the Absolut executives are watching every one else do bottle changes. I mean, just cruise the vodka aisle in the liquor store, and you can see Finlandia, Grey Goose, Chopin, and the others all goosing up the bottle. But I really think Absolut could just recycle the ads, and with the money they save, they could, say, endow a professorship. But I don't think they should muck around with a great ad campaign. Maybe in about 50 years they should start thinking about changing it. And then decide not to.
Disagree? Something tells me you might.
Best,
Jim
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Reader Comments From The Fray
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: Let's talk about coffee. Joseph Britt., below, was just one of many--follow the thread, and consider the question of tipping the barista. He still had time to discuss milk, here, too. And Brendan Herlihy took on ice-cream here. Neill Hamilton is looking for more "dissent, anger, blood feuds... I want the people writing in the Breakfast Table to open up life long vendettas" here (he always is, he's the Breakfast Table's official trouble-maker), but Richard Walrath enjoyed the banter: "it's almost like being there with the third cup of coffee."]
We're really talking about two different things here, aren't we? Coffee, and then all the froofy coffee-influenced liquid dessert-style beverages that take up most of the space on coffee house menus. I have nothing against the latter (because making fun of them is always a good time), but coffee is a really serious subject. If you're going to drink something nearly every day, it might as well be good. This is why I've never understood all the sneering condescension directed at Starbucks. Pre-Starbucks, most coffee served in public places was awful--you were ahead of the game if you ordered came out hot, caffeinated and with no taste at all. OK, most coffee served in public places is still awful, but with Starbucks you at least have the choice of having a good cup of coffee.
I confess I think Starbucks is slipping, based on extensive research I've done at the Minneapolis Airport. They used to offer a rotation of different coffees--Sumatra, Mocha Java, even New Guinea--but now seem to mostly serve up a couple of blends with names like "European" and "Christmas." Talk about your brand marketing. Also they routinely serve the coffee so hot you wonder if there is something wrong with the water they're using.
--Joseph Britt
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Maybe the students in Mr. Twitchell's anecdote couldn't tell good poetry from bad without guidance, but this doesn't strike me as being universally true. Poetry isn't my thing, but music is, and I have no trouble separating the good from the bad using only my own ears. If there wasn't something intrinsic in good art, we wouldn't, over time, have come to a general agreement about the relative worth of, say, Mozart vs. Salieri.
--Chloe Pajerek
(To reply, click here.)
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