October 22, 2001
Marketing After the Tragedy
Commerce and patriotism are making for uneasy bedfellows in the weeks since the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Advertisers run the risk of alienating customers by using the red, white and blue in
the pursuit of green. There are no guarantees that these patriotic pitches will hit their
marks, and some advertisers are keenly aware of the pitfalls.
Kmart Corp. specifically avoided any mention of products in recent full-page print ads
depicting the American flag, accompanied by the instructions: "Remove from newspaper.
Place in window. Embrace Freedom."
"With everything we're doing, we ask ourselves if this can be viewed by someone as
being opportunistic," said Kmart spokesman Dave Karraker. "Whether it's
advertising, public relations, a community-giving campaign... we know you walk a fine line
when you do something patriotic."
Many companies are rushing to express condolences, celebrate American values or
publicize their relief efforts:
- Full-page newspaper advertisements for Polo Ralph Lauren's newly established American
Heroes Fund, for example, feature the fashion designer sporting an American flag-pattern
sweater.
- Pen maker A.T. Cross is giving $5 to charity with every sale from a line of pens bearing
an emblem of the American flag.
- Under fat type reading "God Bless America" and "United We Stand,"
Newport Beach-based Pacific Avalon Yacht Charters is running print ads touting its wedding
packages.
- Developer Shea Homes is plugging a Corona subdivision with newspaper ads featuring a
photo collage of Old Glory and the Statue of Liberty urging consumers "to pursue the
American Dream" and "get the economy moving again."
While the creators of such ads might be well-meaning, their manipulation of the
"incestuous relationship between patriotism and capitalism" is creating real or
perceived advertising missteps in a society where nerves are rubbed raw.
Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield, for example, has singled out General Motors Corp.
for its highly publicized "Keep America Rolling" campaign, which blends
unabashed patriotism – "let's stand together and keep America rolling"
– with pure commercialism – an unprecedented offer of free financing on the
company's automobiles.
"We have people in Afghanistan risking lives, 5,000 pulverized bodies in the
smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center," Garfield said. "How dare they
suggest that the solution is to buy a damn truck. The whole thing is grotesque."
Yet manufacturers of DVD players, cars, computers and home appliances face a glut of
production capacity as consumers, even before Sept. 11, have reined in their spending.
That's a huge concern, considering consumer purchases of goods and services account for
more than two-thirds of the gross national product.
History suggests that advertising with even a hint of self-promotion will turn off
consumers, said David Lubars, president and executive creative director of the
Minneapolis-based Fallon advertising agency, which creates ads for United Airlines and
other major companies. "Any patriotic message has got to be selfless," Lubars
said. Better to run a traditional spot with a familiar message, he says, "as opposed
to attaching some transparent, plastic patriotism to it."
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority gave serious thought to incorporating a
sober, patriotic theme into post-attack advertising for the desert getaway. Consumer
interviews showed Vegas fans instead supported a straight-ahead ad promising the
"freedom to escape from it all."
Interviews with visitors who traveled to Las Vegas in September, along with surveys in
Los Angeles and other key markets, underscored that Vegas visitors view the city as an
adult-oriented escape valve.
The new commercial now running in Los Angeles and other markets reflects that vision.
The camera pulses from Vegas showgirls and entertainers Penn and Teller to bubbling
fountains and swimming pools. Frank Sinatra croons that it's time to "break out of
that cage... and do all the things you've always wanted to do."
Source: Los
Angeles Times, October 18, 2001
Would you like to find out more about how potential customers react to your advertising?
Call Jay Zaltzman at Bureau West Research Group – tel: (818) 752-7210.
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