9 Mar 2009
Brands and satire
The devil has the best tunes, and the satirist is more entertaining (or should be, if they want to keep working) than the politicians and public figures whose excesses and inadaquecies they expose.
For brands, the same rules apply, and there are in reality few big brands who can afford to be consistently incisive, witty, scabrous or entertaining, without running foul of their customers, own internal legal department or ‘brand police’.
I was reminded of this theme - a constant challenge for marketing people everywhere - while scanning my Twittter feed this morning.
UK celebrity chef, and all-round good egg (organic natch!) Jamie Oliver has got up on this Monday morning and taken time to talk to his 21,141 followers thus:
“Good weekend everyone?”
In contrast, here’s a sample tweet from @RichardMadeley:
“Okay. One. More. Time!!! ‘Aga-doo-doo-doo, I’ve got three nipples on my chest. Aga-doo-doo-doo, they poke many holes in my vest.’”
The difference in output couldn’t be more stark! The underlying reason is of course that one is satire (I wonder if the real Richard Madeley reads ‘Uncle Dick’, I bet he does), the other a real ‘brand’ with all that implies.
Enough from me, I must go back to dreaming up edgy viral campaigns for insurance companies.
