advertising and other stuff. no, really.



Sunday, May 24, 2009

Go camping with Coleman and dump on social media.











Pound for pound, no industry has more me-too moments than advertising. Like competing networks with similar shows, when a client or agency sees an approach or cool effect in one spot they think works, chances are good they’re appropriating lifting paying homage to incorporating it in a commercial. Right now, for every brand open to including a Facebook or Twitter url, there’s one knocking Facey Spaces and the concept of social media. Coleman’s latest work ?

Wants to live in both worlds. (Click image for spot.)

As for the actual spot, Sam Elliot takes you back to all those crappy campouts you went on as a family, back when Dad whipped out the Canadian Club for campfire time because he couldn’t take listening to how bored you little bastards were.

As for the social angle, Coleman says they invented the original social networking. Not a bad positioning, even though Dentyne Ice pretty much already beat them to that play on keywords. I doubt Coleman will be the last ones to riff on the theme though. (See first paragraph.) It may be the agency or the brand in this case, but whenever I see a knock on what is perceived as a trend, it’s usually in defense of more traditional positioning.

Still, it’s Sam Elliot.™ I’d listen to him read the names of THE_REAL_SHAQ’s followers on Twitter. (Elliot should just automatically do all voiceover work in commercials now regardless of the category. Yes, even for things like Yaz.)

In Coleman’s case, the website checks off some of the social boxes with things like a Facebook link, Gomez tie-ins and iPhone apps. Thing is, if you’re going to knock social networking, make sure you have your spot on YouTube, (or at least link to a Coleman page full of camping vids that people already uploaded). Embedding commercials on your site with no way to share? (I think the internet kids call that a fail.)

Otherwise, you’re just pointing out the gaps in your knowledge of the things you make fun of.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good angle on your part but I'm not certain why this is "dumping" on SM. It's just a view of society that maybe we can/should go 48 hours with out checking facebook.

The kids who refuse to disconnect can say "Camping with 'rents. totally bored." on their status. :)

Anonymous said...

But they are. They’re in effect saying, leave all that stuff behind, we were what you did before any of it came along. Unless parents ban cell phones on the trip, kids will find a way to connect like you say. This feels more like they went after parents who remember a time before the internet.

(Besides, I had to use “dumping.” “Coleman tries the anti-social media thing” had less bite.)