I saw Vitamin Water's new TV ad with their new pitch man - none other than 50 cent. The ad had 50 conducting an orchestra that started out playing Beethoven and ended up with the string arrangement from 'In Da Club'. It was a fairly entertaining spot, but as a marketer at heart, it had me seriously scratching my head and wondering what the folks at Glaceau (the company that produces VW) were thinking.

Of course, I am not privy to the strategy behind the Vitamin Water brand, but anyone who has spent any time in this country over the last 20 years is well familiar with the branded water category. No doubt - the Vitamin Water brand seeks to reflect industry-wide attributes like freshness, purity, health, vigor, energy, etc. Most strategic marketers understand that to maximize the effectiveness of a brand (to maximize revenue), everything that touches consumers in the way of marketing, advertising, point-of-purchase etc. must be as precisely consistent with the brand's positioning attributes as possible. If not, the risk of disseminating conflicting messages is quite high: of confusing consumers and, in the end, diluting the brand's strength. When a brand presents advertising that is not strategic its like hearing country music on a rap station. It just doesn't fit. It doesn't connect with what we know of that brand!

Hence, the choice to have 50 cent push Vitamin Water leaves me . . . rather parched strategically. When I think of 50 cent I think of a lot of things. Most of them are rather far removed from adjectives like pure, fresh, and healthy however. He is a central part of the corporatized rap music that glorifies violence, illegality, and immorality. 50 cent is where he is, in large part, because of his sordid personal story - drug dealing at age 12, nine gun shot wounds, living the proverbial 'hard knock life'. That imagery gives him the vaunted 'street cred' that makes rap's largely white middle class consumers swoon all the way to the record store. This - despite the profound damage that the music does to African American youth by shoving counter-productive and anti-social 'aspirational' imagery and messages down their throats. I guess, Glaceau - or perhaps their parent Coca-Cola - made the decision to sacrifice the integrity of their brand - much less to contribute to the attack on African American culture and youth - to merely hawk more units to that potent market of hip hop aficionados in suburbia. That's a shame.



Sure - I know that 50 cent is reported to own about $400 million of Glaceau stock, but I still am at a profound loss as to how the decision to use him makes any strategic marketing sense whatsoever. In fact, it is as thematically consistent as Sir Mix-A-Lot being with a woman reminiscent of the Popeye character Olive Oil. Why? How?

In the end, I'm not surprised at the Coca-Cola connection. They are long known to be great at generating revenue through increased distribution. They have been less than spectacular over the last 20 years, it seems, at burnishing brand preference: at figuring out how to make their brands more compelling to consumers. A prime example of their confusion about marketing (i.e. brand positioning) was a business I worked on for them when I first started there many years ago: Mello Yello. Despite the name, the brand was a high caffeine, high sugar Mountain Dew competitor! This created a natural disconnect that had no choice but to deliver mixed messages - "Mello Yello" and a high octane/high energy carbonated drink??




At the end of the day, I hope Glaceau got the benefit of 50's services on the cheap because of his equity position. That's got to be the reason why they used him, right? Either way, it makes for lazy marketing. Depending upon how much media they put behind it, the campaign may, in fact, stimulate short term volume - but having someone push the brand who's fame is made from violent, misogynist, and illegal imagery has no choice but to cloud a brand that is supposed to mean something very different.


Glaceau's slogan is "hydrate responsibly". Both their strategic lapse in using 50 cent, but more importantly their social negligence in leveraging violence/misogyny et al that has such a profoundly damaging impact on a generation of our young people proves them, at best, to be "marketing irresponsibly". Anything for a buck, right?


Vitamin Water - 50 cent Ad

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MBM,

At the end of the day, I hope Glaceau got the benefit of 50's services on the cheap because of his stock ownership. That's got to be the reason why they used him, right?---MBM

I've routinely skip over the ad when it 'pops-up'.

I noted that I sensed a feeling of pride that a 'brotha' had achieved such placement in the 'econo-struture' of our society.

That IS (positive) achievement.

I think the whole thing is about money, including the decision to use 'fitty'.

His kind of share ownership does command attention.

This shows that in addition to not being poor, 'fitty' ain't stupid either.

PEACE

Jim Chester

quote:

Originally posted by MBM:


I saw Vitamin Water's new TV ad with their new pitch man - none other than 50 cent. The ad had 50 conducting an orchestra that started out playing Beethoven and ended up with the string arrangement from 'In Da Club'. It was a fairly entertaining spot, but as a marketer at heart, it had me seriously scratching my head and wondering what the folks at Glaceau (the company that produces VW) were thinking.

Of course, I am not privy to the strategy behind the Vitamin Water brand, but anyone who has spent any time in this country over the last 20 years is well familiar with the branded water category. No doubt - the Vitamin Water brand seeks to reflect industry-wide attributes like freshness, purity, health, vigor, energy, etc. Most strategic marketers understand that to maximize the effectiveness of a brand (to maximize revenue), everything that touches consumers in the way of marketing, advertising, point-of-purchase etc. must be as precisely consistent with the brand's positioning attributes as possible. If not, the risk of disseminating conflicting messages is quite high: of confusing consumers and, in the end, diluting the brand's strength. When a brand creates advertising that is not strategic its like hearing country music on a rap station. It just doesn't fit. It doesn't connect with what we know of that brand!

Hence, the choice to have 50 cent push Vitamin Water leaves me . . . rather parched strategically. When I think of 50 cent I think of a lot of things. Most of them are rather far removed from adjectives like pure, fresh, and healthy however. He is a central part of the corporatized rap music that glorifies violence, illegality, and immorality. 50 cent is where he is, in large part, because of his sordid personal story - drug dealing at age 12, nine gun shot wounds, living the proverbial 'hard knock life'. That imagery gives him the vaunted 'street cred' that makes rap's largely white middle class consumers swoon all the way to the record store. This - despite the profound damage that the music does to African American youth by shoving counter-productive and anti-social 'aspirational' imagery and messages down their throats. I guess, Glaceau - or perhaps their parent Coca-Cola - made the decision to sacrifice the integrity of their brand - much less to contribute to the attack on African American culture and youth - to merely hawk more units to that potent market of hip hop aficionados in suburbia. That's a shame.



Sure - I know that 50 cent is reported to own about $400 million of Glaceau stock, but I still am at a profound loss as to how the decision to use him makes any strategic marketing sense whatsoever. In fact, it is as thematically consistent as Sir Mix-A-Lot being with a woman reminiscent of the Popeye character Olive Oil. Why? How?

In the end, I'm not surprised at the Coca-Cola connection. They are long known to be great at generating revenue through increased distribution. They have been less than spectacular over the last 20 years, it seems, at burnishing brand preference: at figuring out how to make their brands more compelling to consumers. A prime example of their confusion about marketing (i.e. brand positioning) was a business I worked on for them when I first started there many years ago: Mello Yello. Despite the name, the brand was a high caffeine, high sugar Mountain Dew competitor! This created a natural disconnect that had no choice but to deliver mixed messages - "Mello Yello" and a high octane/high energy carbonated drink??




At the end of the day, I hope Glaceau got the benefit of 50's services on the cheap because of his stock ownership. That's got to be the reason why they used him, right? Either way, it makes for lazy marketing. Depending upon how much media they put behind it, the campaign may, in fact, stimulate short term volume - but having someone push the brand who's fame is made from violent, misogynist, and illegal imagery has no choice but to cloud a brand that is supposed to mean something very different.

Vitamin Water - 50 cent Ad

The irony is attractive.... and the memory of something juxtaposed like that is more lasting... its psychology...

and...

well....

"pecs" sells...



Salaam...

I think marketing their product using 50 cent was brilliant on their part. Don't get me wrong,having lost family members to gang violence and the prison system, I'm not a fan of anybody who glorifies gangs or corrupting our communities with drugs. The fact is there are a lot of young people out there who have the money to burn and will on anything that has their idol's face on it.It makes me sick to see all of these young people wanting to be in a gang desperately to try to be cool. They have no idea what it's really like. It's no way to live. I'm off topic so i'll just finish by saying Glaceau using 50 cent is morally wrong but financially brilliant.