I swear I just don't understand marketers

An ordinary-looking guy wearing a yellow shirt and blue tie is walking along eating cherries from a basket. All of a sudden, he falls off the edge of a cliff and tumbles down, hitting several hard rock outcroppings along the way. When he finally hits the bottom and gets up, his tie is wrapped around his head like a a headband, his shirt has smears of red, green, and brown that make it look tie-dyed, and a clump of grass is hanging from his chin, looking like a beard. In his dazed state, he’s holding his left hand up making the V peace sign. In short, he now looks like a hippie.

And this sells Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream how, exactly?

Heh, that’s pretty funny. I think I’ll go get some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream now.

You remembered it, didn’t you? And you remembered it well enough to post a description on the SDMB.

Sounds like me that it worked extremely well.

Only if **commasense ** then goes out and buys some.

Now I want some Cherry Garcia ice cream. MMmmmmm…cherry chocolate.

I thought that was a clever commercial. Makes sense to me. Cherries…hippie…Cherry Garcia.

(Why did they name it that, anyway, other than the pun value? I know they got permission from Jerry Garcia to name it that, and he even appeared next to Ben and Jerry on the picture of them that used to be on the lids).

Ooh, synchronicity. Your marketing experience worked so well that my partner bought Cherry Garcia tonight at exactly the same time that you posted, without even seeing the ad!

Well, I’ve been eating Cherry Garcia for years, so they haven’t changed *my *behavior. I normally don’t pay close attention to ads, so it was only the novelty of seeing an ad for a product that I buy that, AFAIK, had not previously been advertised on TV that led me to notice it at all. Then I realized I couldn’t understand what they were getting at, so I started looking at the little details.

But dammit, Chuck, you’re right. They made me look. I hate marketers!

Tangent and BoBettie might, though, and just by hearing about the commercial. If one person saw it and said “wtf?” but two or more might laugh, then say “mmm, gotta get me some Ben & Jerry’s,” then it succeeds at its aim.

Funny, after reading that description of the ad i have the sudden urge to toss some guy wearing a yellow shirt and blue tie off a cliff…

commasense, did you grow up in Columbia or move there as an adult?

/hijack

I can’t wait to see the commercial for Chubby Hubby…

Not at all. Only a fool would expect any ad to make people drop everything and come out and buy (other than ads for a special sale price).

The point of any ad is to make the audience remember the product. Maybe you don’t buy it for a year. Maybe you don’t buy it at all – but tell someone else who does. And the point of this wasn’t to make yoy buy Cherry Garcia – it was to make you buy Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. If you get any flavor at all, then the commercial works.

Because, the idea is that, at some point, you will say to yourself, “I feel like some ice cream. Where should I go?” And one of the locations on that list is Ben and Jerry’s.

Neither. We moved here when I was 13. Except for four years at college in Annapolis, and two years living in Silver Spring right after that, I’ve lived here ever since.

Why do you ask? Have you lived in Columbia?

It’s a pleasure to share a board with people who pay attention. As noted, Cherry Garcia has been around for years, and it would be silly to promote it specifically at this late date (the flavor combination of cherries, grass, mud and patchouli really isn’t for everyone anyhow). I’d bet that, even with all the symbolism and plot development given to the flavor, the name Ben & Jerry’s was, audibly and visually, far more prominent.

When you sell candy, you might have a premium or famous product or two that carry you, and you push them. Watch candy commercials: they’ll sometimes mention the manufacturer’s name, but they feature the name of the candy. Partly this is because candy is pretty much always sold alphabetically by product name rather than segregated on the shelf by manufacturer or main ingredient; ice cream is usually marketed very differently – outlets that sell generally do shelve a particular makers’ products all together instead of, say, putting all the maple walnut in one spot, and, since so few manufacturers even go to the trouble of naming their various lines distinctively, it’s impossible to do it that way (of course, outlets that sell and serve either make their own or are contractually committed to only one brand anyway).

With ice cream, you’re selling, first, the idea that it’s worth it to get off the sofa and go get some, and second, whose ice cream base is of the finest quality, because individual flavors are as unimportant as the toppings you might stir into your sundae. Think for a minute of how many ice cream commercials you’ve ever seen that talked about how their cocoa beans, or vanilla beans, or butterscotch recipe, or strawberry source, was the best. Then think about how often you hear the words “creamy,” or “rich,” or “satisfying” – words that apply to the base itself. All they want is a positive association with the manufacturer’s name. They couldn’t care less if you hate strawberries, are allergic to peanuts, or think chocolate is a nefarious plot. The only thing I’m surprised about in this commercial is that it got so specific about a single flavor. But since Ben & Jerry’s names all it’s flavors anyway, they probably figured there was no additional disadvantage to doing so. At that point, the advertising agency probably chose on the basis of three questions: (1) Which flavor is easiest to identify with Ben & Jerry? (2) Which flavor name lends itself to the most entertaining narrative for a commercial? (3) How much would it cost to hire the appropriate spokesmen for Ben & Jerry’s Vermonty Python? Once (3) had been answered in the prohibitive, the choice was obvious.

Thanks, TKOS, for your thoughtful and well-informed reply.

I have since seen another ad in the campaign, using the same style of stop-motion animation. (Not, apparently, Claymation[sup]®[/sup], which is the registered trademark of Oscar-winning animator Will Vinton. Since he doesn’t mention the ads on his Web site, I’m assuming he didn’t make them. Nor do they seem to be from Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman, although they are reminiscent of their style.)

A guy is talking to a friend about a good idea he has (to save energy, I think–I missed the first part). Let’s put all our houses on a hill, and that way we can just coast down to our jobs every day. He friend says, Yeah, but then we have to go up the hill to get home. The first guy just sits there with his mouth open, stymied.

It’s an ad for the flavor called “Half Baked.”

Now, that’s funny. I get it. So I guess the Cherry Garcia one is supposed to be funny, too. But it didn’t make me laugh.

I haven’t seen the B&J ad, but the ones that’ve been driving me nuts lately are the Vonage ads. “One smart decision in the middle of a bunch of stupid ones” or whatever it says. I’ve seen two of them, but most often the girl who wants to go swimming with the dolphins that are really sharks. To me it doesn’t say one smart decision, it says that dumb people chose Vonage.

That’s not how that kind of advertising works. I assume like most people you buy ice cream from time to time, right? Well maybe you have your particular favorite like Haagen Daz or Breyers or whatever. But let’s say you don’t. You go to the store and see half a dozen different brands so which one do you pick?

You pick the one who’s name is most familiar to you.

I didn’t see this mentioned above, but from the description, it sounds like the guy ends up looking like Jerry Garcia…

I saw a commercial last night from some other B&J ice cream. Don’t remember what it was, but it had the same effect on me that it had on you, “what the hell?” rather than the usual effect most ads have on me, which is, “Why on earth would I want something that makes me do that???” So, better marketing than most.

There seems to be a long tradition of idiot spokesmen, especially for phone companies. Remember the Carrot Top ads, or the ones with David Arquette? How a blithering idiot is supposed to be a good representative for your company escpapes me, but maybe TKOS or some of the other (apparently professional) marketers here will explain why it’s a brilliant strategy, too. I guess it’s all part of the “make them remember the name, even if it’s by being annoying” philosophy.