For those of you who follow this blog, you know I’m a big fan of the modern Jack-in-the-Box commercials, especially since over here in Canada we never see their ads. (Actually my wife doesn’t either; it’s a West Coast thing)
I just thought I’d show you the back-story of Jack and the stark differences between the 80’s and the modern Jack-in-the-Box commercials.
First, the 80’s, where they were blowing up the clown (thanks to studiobarrington for posting it on YouTube):
Now compare to Secret Weapon Marketing’s modern revival of the clown:
In stark comparison to Pepsi, here we have Mountain Dew (ironically owned by Pepsi) — which has indeed changed its branding quite a lot since its original commercials.
First, a fake “lost ad” — a Dew commercial released in 2000 (courtesy of YouTube and columbusmediatalk):
Ha ha, old commercials are funny, right? Yeah.
This is one of the real black and whites from the 60’s, according to MrPacMan36:
Yes, “Tickle your innards” is quite a bit different from “Dew-licious”. It’s a good thing today’s ads don’t make false promises about using their product to get women and perform better, right? *cough cough*
But it gets… umm…
Not quite sure how to describe THIS one, but let’s say they changed their branding again and then afterwards changed it AGAIN (thank goodness!):
Obviously rebranding doesn’t hurt some products, since Mountain Dew is popular — especially for geeks, nerds and gamers. I believe this comes from America, since in the U.S., Mountain Dew has a considerable amount of caffeine, making it popular for previously mentioned gamers and geeks who can’t handle the taste of coffee.
(It could be Mountain Dew’s Old Shame, and as I’ve stated previous there’s no way to erase its existance now, thanks to the ‘net — but fortunately for the Dew, the commercials aren’t horrible enough to do damage.)
These days, Mountain Dew has embraced its gamer consumers — you can even find cans with World of Warcraft artwork on it, and it calls itself “game fuel”. (It even goes by the abriviation mtndew — note the casing).
Mountain Dew — from Hillbillies to become the drink of gamers (under the Pepsi brand), which has always had the message of being the ‘drink youth’.
Now there most interesting thing about this commercial is how much the brand hasn’t changed. Sure, the music, the logos and probably even the taste has gone through several redesigns but Pepsi uses the platform of being “the drink of the youthful mind” to this very day.
Of course, when you review these old commercials talking about being modern it suddenly becomes deliciously ironic.
Speaking of modern, all I can think of when I see a modern Pepsi logo are those old, solid rubber balls from early grade school gym class. They were red and blue, with a white stripe across the middle. And they hurt like the dickens any time they hit you.
Thanks to YouTube and dianamherrera we have a very early, very odd variation of Rice Krispies’ mascots, Snap, Crackle & Pop. Its… very different from the modern take.
Amazing how some things change, eh? Note that in this version the characters are even dressed differently. Pop normally wears red, and they’re all wearing chef’s hats. Didn’t change as drastically as the original Ronald McDonald though… (shudder)
In comparison, take a look at Tony the Tiger. His design might have changed, but his basic approach hasn’t.
Managing a creative property is a balancing act between evolution and “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, but the best advice I can give is “Never try to be cool“.
Even if it’s just advertising, “to thine own self be true”.
Something a little different this week (but related to last week’s) is another famous icon for Wendy’s: Dave Thomas — who incidentally worked for Col. Sanders (yes, that KFC Col. Sanders).
Here’s a really great interview back from when Dave was still alive, thanks to YouTube and Engardio:
The interview is full of ironic highlights — such as that Dave encouraged Col. Sanders to do interviews and commercials, thinking he’d never be in front of a camera. Or the fact that Sanders got up so early yet was so wealthy, and Dave thinking he’d never do the same if he was ever wealthy… and wound up doing so anyway.
Sanders taught Dave a lot about hard work and the importance of quality — and a little about what not to do as well. Sanders was old, so he was stuck in his ways and couldn’t delegate whereas Dave was more adaptable.
Long story short — Dave was shaped by an icon and became one himself.
The tie to today’s marketing? Dave actually used a variation of social media before its time. Sure, you couldn’t talk back to him and he had a budget far beyond what a YouTuber could dream of, but that was Dave on camera. He was not an actor, and while it was a marketing decision to use humour (thanks to agency Backer Spielvolgel Bates) basically Dave just had to be himself. Unlike other advertising — and much like the Col’s — it was by far more real because it was lovable, dorky Dave trying his best with what the agency came up with. (Or the agency was trying their best with what Dave could do; either way it was great!)
Just a note — if someone reading this decides that they are going to try to do what Dave did, please keep in mind that it has to be true to YOU, and that Dave’s initial attempts of starring in his own commercials were panned until he got some help.
And in closing, a funny Wendy’s commercial. Less actual Dave in it, but it’s done in a way that matches his personality so it works. (via IceManNYR)
You can see why McDonald’s lost — and they had to pay over a million in damages.
Play fair, kids.
Copyright laws aside — just look at the ad itself. Apple Pie trees? Hamburger and French fry plants? So they were implying that the food was vegan? And is it me, or does Ronald look like he’s sporting more of an afro than his usual frizzy hair? Anyone else a little creeped out?
Although they could always play the “Darker and Edgier” gambit playing off the latest Alice in Wonderland film by Tim Burton — providing they don’t get sued for that too. Imagine — “Return to McDonaldland”.
Ahh YouTube… where would I be without you? Not writing Advertising Then and Now posts, probably. A less serious post today, featuring another “Jack in the Box” commercial. We’re based out in London, Ontario — we don’t have any Jacks, a South-Western America only chain. So we don’t see their commercials. Which is really too bad.
This one brought to you by littoivan, posted in 2007:
The only thing notable is the obvious drug humour, because due to the taboo it’s an uncommon approach. Has the Internet, and our exposure to all things human (good and bad) helped cause a shift? Or are we just getting a better sense of humour?
One thing that media is hilariously or painfully (depending on your point of view) known for is a little trope called “Totally Radical”. To sum it up, this is when people who aren’t cool anymore try to make cool. Cool has a short shelf-life and if you don’t have it right now, forget about it. Once the cool is just past its expiration date, it rots. Oddly enough, if enough time passes cool then ferments and becomes cool again. Much like fashion.
There are three flavours of media manufactured cool attempts:
Failure. This is hilarious or painful, and the most common case.
Post expiration date, this stuff is almost always hilarious.
Lampshaded. This is when you known darn well you aren’t cool and go through with it anyway to be funny (or perhaps spiteful). Uncommon.
Less funny after its expiration date.
Success. Extremely rare.
Just looks dated post expiration date because it blends in with its own time line.
And, thanks to our friends at YouTube and Nintendo, we have a shining example of complete and total failure from the 80’s, whose ‘cool’ expired several years ago, and has now entered the so-bad-it’s-good hilarity zone courtesy of dougfreeze:
Among other things, please note that it is completely believable that the “cool kid” and the “nerdy kid” would be friends, because even in the 80’s people would know the “cool kid” is a poserwanna bejust a big a dork fake. (You see how hard it is NOT to wander into dating yourself? I’m glad I was never cool — I can’t fall any farther)
What’s the take-away?
Well, for lack of cool, you could always try:
Fermented cool. Mimic what was trendy from say, when you were 12.
It plays the nostalgia card for anyone your age group and will likely be ‘hilariously old fashioned” or retro to the modern crowd… either way it will be remembered.
The Menthos commercials, often mocked, are remembered for their 60-70’s style advertising played straight.
Lampshading.
Try your hardest at capturing what you think ‘modern cool’ is. Then get your target audience’s reaction. Record it, throw it on at the end.
Doubly useful — either it will let you know exactly how far off the mark you are, or it will be funny in itself and provide a memorable ad.
The final lesson: Much like social media, cool must be genuine. If you can’t be genuinely cool… just settle for genuine.
