Eww, Hate That Stuff.
Image by http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/miracle-whip-commercial
This was the response I got from my best friend when I told her I was writing this post. What, you ask, gave her such a visceral, instant reaction? Traffic? Nope. Dental procedures? Not so much. Miracle Whip? Yes. Wait, what? Yes, Miracle Whip, the condiment. Or as the guy in the new “Take a Side” campaign says….spreadable disappointment.
This exact reaction is actually the basis of a clever new campaign from Kraft that pits its Miracle Whip fans against Mayonnaise die-hards. However, what’s interesting about this entire concept is it doesn’t waste energy trying to convert mayo lovers or offer up trite recipes using Miracle Whip. They aren’t even asking viewers to think about liking it. They know how polarizing their product is, and people made up their minds the minute they tasted it. Instead, it plants an olive-tipped toothpick in the sand(wich) and flat-out says “You hate us and everything we stand for, but that’s cool, because our fans love us.” It’s a pretty bold statement to admit people hate your product, let alone embrace the hate, and then spend millions to run TV spots telling the world how much people hate you. Can you even imagine AT&T saying “We realize you have strong negative feelings about our service. That’s OK, you should stick with Verizon.” Two things really strike me with this campaign:
First: It mirrors the modern conversation
Tweeting, liking, commenting, tagging are all norms of communications these days. Everyone has a voice and a side. We are accustomed to loudly declaring our opinions and this campaign embodies that entire idea. Actually, it’s a classic internet forum argument brought to life unexpectedly strong in a traditional advertising format. Predictably, the online campaign lives on Facebook and YouTube, where viewers are encouraged to declare which side they’re on.
Second: The big idea
As agencies, our job is to consistently think of bolder, more unique ways to get our clients’ messages across. We research, we brainstorm, we strategize and we make up goofy office games all in the name of sparking creativity to yield the illusive “big idea.” Miracle Whip’s campaign illustrates this achievement so well. At some point in the process, someone turned inwards and came up with the big idea using divisiveness as content (with some inspiration from a similar campaign by Marmite, the makers of a very British yeast spread with similar love-it-or-hate-it opinion). It just illustrates how important critical thought is when assessing a brand. It isn’t always about barriers-to-purchase, market share, competitor insights and everything else we learn about advertising. It’s about insight into what makes a brand unique. And if insight is half the population hates you, there just might be something brilliant in there worth exploring.
Of course, convincing a client this is the way to go is the second half of the battle. Would your organization be willing to go against the norm with a campaign like this? Or, do you think it’s a bad idea in general?
Comments
Hate Miracle Whip; love this blog post. I guess we'll see eventually if this was a smart strategy, but my thought is that without some sort of risk, you'll never see the impact truly great advertising can have.
I too hate Miracle Whip. But I respect the brand for being authentic and embracing reality. It's what we've always known: good advertising is based on TRUTH. Besides you get the biggest ROI from current users.
Hate it! As a mayonnaise lover, my hatred for all things Miracle Whip runs deep. I can truly say I can only think of one person who likes Miracle Whip: My Grandmother. Although I love my grandmother very much, I can't bring myself to eat Miracle Whip when I visit. And, although I'm sure my grandmother loves me very much, she never buys mayonnaise for me when I'm in town. So, I guess Miracle Whip got it right, at least from my family's perspective.
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