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Everything's going artisanal these days, from pizza to dog treats.
In September, Domino's Pizza -- the second-largest pizza chain in the United States, with annual revenue approaching $1.5 billion -- introduced "Artisan Pizzas" to its 5,000 stores nationwide. Are you picturing skilled workers up to their elbows in whole-grain flour and locally sourced tomatoes, lovingly patting each pie into a charmingly irregular shape? Well, forget about it.
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A television commercial for the laundry detergent Gain is getting under the skin of the grammatically minded. The commercial shows a man getting dressed and smelling his newly laundered shirt, as the announcer says, "Bill's mornings have never been gooder thanks to something amazing we've added to Gain." That one little word, gooder, has set off a storm of protests — which may be exactly what Procter & Gamble, the makers of Gain, are looking for.
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Remember when marketers exhorted us to trade up, spend freely, and buy more? When grand, luxe, and premier were sprinkled like shaved truffles over ad copy? That was before the recession took a bite out of our wallets and our aspirations. Nowadays, it's fashionable (not to mention necessary) to live within one's means — or to just live without.
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The "call to action" is one of the sacrosanct elements of ads and direct mail: Lose weight! Save money! Act now! How unorthodox, then, to discover calls to inaction — invitations to simply think — in a spate of recent ad campaigns.
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My wife recently spotted the following perplexing line on Crabtree & Evelyn's website, advertising their hand soap:
That's right, they're selling soap-free soap. I've heard of a "nothing-burger," but "nothing-soap"? Continue reading...Our gentle cleansing liquid soaps are pH-balanced and soap-free.
McDonald's has launched an ambitious marketing campaign for its new coffee line, McCafé. In one commercial currently saturating American airwaves, viewers are advised that you can "McCafé your day" by enlivening your daily grind. The ad extends the acute accent mark at the end of "McCafé" to various other words: a "commute" becomes a "commuté," a "cubicle" becomes a "cubiclé," and so forth. Will this wordplay work with American consumers, or will the exotic diacritics fall on deaf ears?
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