Campaigns

To promote its new Amazing Glazes line, baking brand Duncan Hines hoped to generate buzz with a new website and commercial-quality YouTube videos. But it probably didn't plan on attracting this level of attention.

The food company is under public scrutiny for the first of its YouTube commercials, titled "Hip Hop Cupcakes." The ad, directed by Josh Binder, feature seven plain cupcakes that promptly grow lips and eyes that bust into beat-box and dance after being drizzled with Duncan Hines's new glaze — the chocolate flavor, that is.

A number of viewers are up in arms over what's being referred to as "black-face cupcakes" — including, among others, members of the hip hop community, since the ad doesn't actually include any hip-hop.

It's true: the racial undertones of this commercial can't, and shouldn't be, ignored. As Morgan put it: "The only okay part was that it was a cupcake, and cupcakes are good." Apparently, Duncan Hines has recognized its mea culpa: the company's already taken down the video.

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When I learned baby carrots were kicking off a $25 million marketing marketing makeover, I couldn't help but scratch my head. Really? What could possibly make these dried-out packets of "nature's candy" plane snacks hip, ever?

But when I saw the campaign's new website and SNL short-esque commercials, they made my morning. I've decided that, even though I maintain baby carrots taste overrated, I stand corrected: they are on the cutting edge of avant-garde. Check out my favorite commercial when you read more.

Domino's has succeeded in making its pizza more authentic, and now it hopes to do the same with its advertising imagery. In its latest campaign, the pizza chain pledges not to alter its pizza in TV and print ads, encouraging customers to upload their photos instead. With the help of agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Domino's has just released a video. Titled "Pulling the Cheese," the clip gives the public a glimpse into the amount of exacting effort that goes into a tabletop video shoot.

Exactly what is involved? We're talking pizza makers, key grips, hand models, and food stylists toting tweezers, blow torches, drills, and electric knives. The takeaway quote comes courtesy of a key grip, who puts it this way: "Everything is focused in around this tabletop, and when you look at it from across the stage, it's this glowing other world."

See the extremely intense cheese pull in action after the jump.

With words like bacon, ham, and prosciutto associated with its name, you'd think pork would be pretty happy about its status in the food world. But this week, the Des Moines, IA-based National Pork Board announced its hopes to revitalize the protein's reputation by doing away with the famed tagline "The Other White Meat" in favor of a new slogan. The board will launch a new brand campaign in March 2011, after more than 23 years of using the well-known slogan, which it first aired in 1987 as a way to let consumers know pork had fewer calories than one might think.

However, according to Ceci Snyder, the Pork Board's marketing vice president, people have lost sight of the meaning of the phrase. In two decades, chicken has more than doubled in demand; meanwhile, pork sales have remained flat.

The National Pork Board maintains it won't completely drop "The Other White Meat" as a marketing tool — only that the line will no longer be the focal point of its campaign. "It did its job, for sure, back in 1987. It was phenomenal," Snyder said, but "we really need identity that catches people's attention. Being the (other) white meat is just blending into the background." Instead, the new campaign will focus on protein, and include a website overhaul.

"The Other White Meat" is such an enduring campaign that I think it'll be difficult to forget — and hard to top. What do you think of this risky move?

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After a 10-year break, Kraft's Jell-O and Bill Cosby are back together. The legendary Cosby Show comedian, who appeared in Jell-O commercials for nearly 30 years, is once again partnering with the gelatin and pudding company in its newest marketing campaign.

Although his last stint with Jell-O was in front of the camera in 1999, this time, the actor will be behind the camera as executive producer of the brand's new multimillion-dollar "Hello Jell-O" campaign, which features an updated Jell-O logo with a smiling face.

In addition to the brand's ads, which will begin airing on Monday, Jell-O will also sponsor the comedian's new weekly web series, OBKB, which will consist of 10-minute episodes on Cosby's own Ustream channel.

Next month, Cosby will help Kraft kick off a 22-city tour in Los Angeles to find the country's best giggle. To check out one of Jell-O's latest spots, read more.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of its celebrated chicken noodle soup, food company Campbell's has really used its noodle. Yesterday, the 140-year-old company launched a bold campaign called "Slurp" to get consumers to think about its staid soup in a new way.

To promote the fact that there are 32 feet of egg noodles in every can of its chicken noodle soup, the corporation partnered with ad agency BBDO New York and Traction Creative. They've erected a giant billboard with a 54-foot noodle coming out of it, which appears to be slurped by a mannequin standing in a window three stories above.The billboard is near Manhattan's Times Square and will be displayed on the corner of 7th Avenue and 53rd Street for the next four weeks, where it will attract plenty of attention in a high-traffic area.

The campaign is cute — I only wish I could see the billboard in person! — and I learned something new (I would never have guessed there are 32 feet of noodles in every Campbell's can). What do you think of the marketing effort? Does it make you want to buy Campbell's chicken noodle soup?

Source: Flickr User Vagamundos

To promote its new Bud Light Lime cans, Anheuser-Busch is getting the word out through an interesting campaign that takes raunchiness to the next level. The online commercial features confessions of people who claim they enjoy "getting it in the can."

Industry vets have called the spot a "wannabe viral video" that's "crude" and "juvenile." Personally, I was entertained the first time I saw it — though it doesn't make me want to run to the store to buy Bud Light Lime. What do you think? Is this marketing ploy childish and gross, or a laughable campaign that you can get behind?

Source: Flickr User KeyExpert

The marketing masterminds behind Carl's Jr. know that sex sells: this year alone, the fast food franchise has featured lascivious spots starring seductresses such as Padma Lakshmi and Audrina Partridge suggestively scarfing down burgers. And CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, won't stop there. To kick off its new French Dip Thickburger, Hardee's has brought on four feisty "French Maids" who will embark on a national tour, visiting stores and posing for photos. The ladies — appropriately named Sophie, Antoinette, Gabrielle, and Isabelle — hope to lure customers with short skirts, fishnet stockings, and plunging necklines. Consumers will be able to snap pictures with the maids and later locate the images online through a Hardee's microsite, French Me. With their risqué campaigns, the two eateries have certainly gotten media attention. But as they continue down a racy path, are the chains poised to become the fast food equivalent of Hooters? Is the company's marketing approach slick — or edging on vulgar?

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PETA is targeting South America as the market for its latest campaign. The organization's spokesperson? None other than Lydia Guevara, granddaughter of Marxist leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara. In the organization's first-ever South American campaign for vegetarianism, the scantily clad Lydia, a vegetarian, wears nothing but bandoliers of baby carrots and a red beret, in a reference to her grandfather, a revolutionary who contributed to Fidel Castro's rise to leadership in Cuba.

"It very much evokes the tagline of the ad, which is 'Join the vegetarian revolution," said PETA representative Michael McGraw. "It's an homage of sorts to her late grandfather." What do you think of the campaign? Does it get your attention in the right way, or it is too racy and politically charged?

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