MacGregor Media - Creativity, Strategy and Technology
  • HOME
  • About
  • Busker Blog by David MacGregor
  • Archive
    • Leadership in the networked economy
    • The joys of Coffee Consulting
    • Signature Style in Graphic Design
    • Surviving Survivor Bias
    • Health Check - the near future of healthcare
  • EXCLUSIVES

Is your ad campaign a dog? Episode 1: Spuds MacKenzie

14/3/2014

0 Comments

 
Geico mascot
There is a showbiz adage about never working with children or animals. But children and animals are perennial 'borrowed interest' favourites in advertising.  One of the most popular ad campaigns in New Zealand history was the story of 'SPOT' - a Jack Russell terrier whose name was a slightly clumsy acronym of Services and Products Of Telecom. Rolly the Sharpei was created to attest to the soft and strong characteristics of Purex toilet paper and the Wire-haired Fox Terrier Wilson stars in Lotto's gambling ads. That's just advertising from New Zealand - the convention persists around the world. 

The grand-daddy of dogs starring in modern advertising is Spuds MacKenzie who starred in the marketing of Bud Light in the late 1980s. For a while he was everywhere - from TV advertising (Superbowl 1987) to plush toys. He made his way into popular culture - with subsequent references from Futurama to Toy Story (the kid next door's dog was a bull terrior called Scud). In the end Spuds was retired, the brand owner says it was because he was overshadowing the brand, but it is more likely that the pressure from legislators and lobby groups who claimed that the cute dog was just too appealing to the young became too much of a distraction - they moved on and Spuds lived out her retirement in obscurity (that's right, 'he' was a she).

There's something to be said for having an animal as a mascot. They are easily replaced - one Fox Terrier looks pretty much like another to the untrained eye (in fact Wilson of Lotto fame had to be left in India due to quarantine restrictions and was replaced by another dog - causing a carefully managed wave of PR). They are cheaper to wrangle than a human celebrity - fewer riders in their contracts about M&Ms in their trailers on shoot-day. Unlike a human star they won't get prosecuted for drunk driving or throwing water bombs at a neighbour's home. And, of course, they have enormous emotional appeal.

Dogs and other animals may be a cheap shot in advertising, but they aren't going away. Even a lizard can have a human personality attributed to it - to warm up an insurance brand.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    David MacGregor

    This blog is a notepad of contemporaneous and sometimes extemporaneous thoughts about creativity, strategy and ideas.
    I also produce occasional white papers - join my mailing list to get priority on those.

    I'll try to share some of the things I've learned with you - I'll try to make the blog follow my rules:

    1. Be useful
    2. Be engaging
    3. Be yourself.

    Leave comments - discuss, debate and share.  Let's have some fun.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    June 2018
    September 2017
    June 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Ads
    Brand Name
    Consumer
    Content Marketing
    Copywriting
    Design
    Ideas
    Low Cost
    Magazines
    Naming
    Native Advertising
    Pitch
    Planning
    Promotion
    Retail
    Storytelling

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • HOME
  • About
  • Busker Blog by David MacGregor
  • Archive
    • Leadership in the networked economy
    • The joys of Coffee Consulting
    • Signature Style in Graphic Design
    • Surviving Survivor Bias
    • Health Check - the near future of healthcare
  • EXCLUSIVES