George Parker: marketeering mayhem at Campbell’s and Dunkin’

The big news of the week is that after more than a hundred years, Campbell’s Soup is changing its name to… Wait for it…Campbell’s. Yes indeed, that’s fucking brilliant. The reason given is… “It is part of its evolution” as it adopts a “new strategy [and] new mission.” Does that mean it’s going to stop making soup then? What the hell is wrong with these people?

At the same time, we are told that Dunkin’ Donuts is changing its name to… Wait again…Dunkin’. Perhaps this also means they are going to stop selling donuts. What are the police forces of America going to do for a free breakfast?

Reminds me of the time a few years ago when the California Milk Marketing board moved its account from Goodby Silverstein & Partners after twenty-five years. Yes, twenty five years of the iconic “Got Milk?” campaign were no more. Even though the “Got Milk?” tagline was recognized by 90% of the nation’s population.

Reminds me of when Avis dropped the “We try harder” tagline after fifty years and replaced it with “It’s your space.” which was then replaced by “This way forward.” Brilliant… The CMO responsible for this fiasco was soon also replaced. However, there is one breed of corporate hacks worse than marketers.

That’s lawyers. When I worked on IBM at Ogilvy, New York, I did an ad for OS/2 Voice recognition software. Featuring Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov, the headline read…“For years, mad scientists have talked to their computers. Now, you can too.” It was enthusiastically approved all the way up the corporate ladder, ‘til it got to the lawyers. They killed it, because they said it was offensive to mad scientists.

I kid you not.

(Here’s the one that ran.)

This is a corrected version of an earlier post.

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