Friday, May 22, 2009

News in Brief with the Gapster Chief


A sideways glance at the latest shenanigans of the marketing world…

Pity poor old Proctor and Gamble this week, hit with a £100m tax bill after losing their claim that their Pringles brand ‘isn’t a crisp’. Isn’t a crisp? For goodness sake, if you’re going to try and fiddle finances, at least consult an expert – British MPs have a number of cracking tips…

Pot Noodle is investing heavily in its new Doner Kebab flavour. Fantastic TV ads (even if they do completely plagiarise ‘Flight of the Conchords), but combining two of the most famously un-nutritional things to eat? How can this possibly be a viable commercial strategy? Oh of course, the student market!

M&S has been voted the UK’s most trusted retailer according to a recent YouGov poll. Hard to see how trust is gained when advertising ties and cufflinks for 1p and then leaving thousands of gullible shoppers left with a can of pop and a few sweets, but hey.

“Sorry seems to be the hardest word”, sang Elton John, although he obviously didn’t consider marketing strategists when penning this famous line. First the Evening Standard runs its ‘Sorry’ campaign, now Sunny D is apologising for its previous use of artificial flavours – what next? McDonalds to apologise for making kids fat?

Stagecoach and the Government are teaming up to target customers with advice on relationships and sex in a campaign entitled ‘R U Thinking’. Nice use of ‘txt spk’ there and of course what better place to target randy teenagers than the back of a bus?

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