Earn it, Cadbury’s!
Cadbury’s relaunched their premium chocolate bars, Bournville recently. With new rich packaging and a new format, reminiscent of their other premium range, Temptations, Bournville looked promising.
But then, advertising happened.
Take a look at the following two print ads for the brand:
And then, this TV spot:
Link courtesy aFaqs!
All this has left me befuddled. With such finishing and the obvious amount of money spent on the campaign, what is the level of thought and creativity that’s gone behind it?
The positioning is simple: You don’t buy a Bournville, you earn it. So far so good. Shall we see what the “creative” has done with the idea?
In the first one, “Booker, Oscars, Nobel, Bournville... Hope you get the drift”, it took me a while to understand that they are trying to hook on to the “earn it like an award” idea. Oh right, Bournville is such an earnable thing as a Nobel Prize or a Booker.! And then “hope you get the drift”. No I don’t. You have to do better than that. Preposterous at its worst, unimaginative at its best.
Then I saw the TV ad, where a reporter tells us that the way to eat it is to break the bar (trying to own the sound), smell it (like wine) and then tells us of the “legend of Bournville”, again that “you earn it”, which according to him is British mumbo-jumbo. Then he proceeds to eat it without having earnt it, and gets lifted off by a giant bird, reinforcing the idea that “you dare not eat it without earning it first”. Hence, we know the agency is short of ideas.
And in the end, you have “The food of the gods and other top management”. Had it just been “The food of the gods” it’d still have been okay. A bent enough headline, though dated. But “... other top management”? What does that mean? It doesn’t add to the “earn it” idea, neither is it funny.
Neither of the three ads have been able to give me any impression that Bournville is a premium product or that the advertising is smart,or at least clever.
To Cadbury’s: you earn your place in the consumer’s mind and in the advertising world, and this time you haven’t. Sorry.
But then, advertising happened.
Take a look at the following two print ads for the brand:
And then, this TV spot:
Link courtesy aFaqs!
All this has left me befuddled. With such finishing and the obvious amount of money spent on the campaign, what is the level of thought and creativity that’s gone behind it?
The positioning is simple: You don’t buy a Bournville, you earn it. So far so good. Shall we see what the “creative” has done with the idea?
In the first one, “Booker, Oscars, Nobel, Bournville... Hope you get the drift”, it took me a while to understand that they are trying to hook on to the “earn it like an award” idea. Oh right, Bournville is such an earnable thing as a Nobel Prize or a Booker.! And then “hope you get the drift”. No I don’t. You have to do better than that. Preposterous at its worst, unimaginative at its best.Then I saw the TV ad, where a reporter tells us that the way to eat it is to break the bar (trying to own the sound), smell it (like wine) and then tells us of the “legend of Bournville”, again that “you earn it”, which according to him is British mumbo-jumbo. Then he proceeds to eat it without having earnt it, and gets lifted off by a giant bird, reinforcing the idea that “you dare not eat it without earning it first”. Hence, we know the agency is short of ideas.
And in the end, you have “The food of the gods and other top management”. Had it just been “The food of the gods” it’d still have been okay. A bent enough headline, though dated. But “... other top management”? What does that mean? It doesn’t add to the “earn it” idea, neither is it funny.Neither of the three ads have been able to give me any impression that Bournville is a premium product or that the advertising is smart,or at least clever.
To Cadbury’s: you earn your place in the consumer’s mind and in the advertising world, and this time you haven’t. Sorry.
Labels: advertising, what went wrong?
posted by Hypnos @ 3:35 pm
9 Comments:
At 9 January 2009 at 17:22 ,
Anonymous said...
I think they forgot some thing. Whether 'the rich' or 'not the rich', its still a chocolate. Without doubt, its a great chocolate. But I dont know why do you (or me) need to earn it rather than just eat it.
Rightly pointed out. And btw, happy new year.
At 9 January 2009 at 18:19 ,
Anonymous said...
I havent seen the print ads till now, but the TV spot is classic wtf.. Why would even they think of positioning a chocolate as earn it. I liked the way temptations (even the name) is positioned.
At 11 January 2009 at 10:35 ,
Unknown said...
I liked the Temptations concept better as well. WTF with the giant Roc (thats what the bird was). Going premium is one thing, but this is a classic case. Good that you posted this .. have seen that ad for quite a few times now and wondered .. ?? do they want to sell that thing or what ???
At 12 January 2009 at 09:07 ,
Anonymous said...
hey even I was asking the same.. why do we need to earn it??? does it mean we shouldn't have it if you gifted it to me?? :P
or does it mean, its so pricey, that the only way to have it is to earn it??? ;)
At 12 January 2009 at 11:40 ,
Hypnos said...
Trying to create an 'aura', and failing at it.
At 17 January 2009 at 10:03 ,
Nandu Chitnis said...
I agree with your analysis ...did you see the Bajaj Avenger "I feel like I am God..."
Will be interesting if you blog that.
At 18 January 2009 at 02:25 ,
Sudhir Pai said...
I read and all the comments here, and agree with each. Why do I get the idea this is response the brand managers at cadbury's wanted to elicit from the consumers?
At 18 January 2009 at 11:00 ,
Hypnos said...
That's an interesting take on it Sudhir. Reminds me of the Bingo campaigns.
At 18 January 2009 at 12:27 ,
Sudhir Pai said...
@amit:
Precisely! Bingo is a classic example. The brief probably required the creatives to come up with something that people "wont forget" rather than "will remember". It kinda worked with Bingo.
Off the record, being a copywriter, I've done work that I dont wanna to take ownership of, but then we are to work within the confines of the brief we get from the clients' side. As far as this Bournville campaign is concerned, the brief was probably to disrupt the brand image that Bournville had created in the past. And they probably want to create a new segment cuz Dark Chocolate has never been sold in the Indian Market. I only remember this Sunfeast Dark Temptations Biscuit which tried creating an aura about it's exclusivity, and I'm not sure if it enjoys a recall now.
I think the print campaign is has that arrogance that might work, at least going by the response we've seen so far. The TVC comes across as another Bingo ad. So there seems to be a lack of synergy in the campaign. Donno if that's such a good thing. We'll wait and watch. [:)]
This is turning out to be quite an interesting post I must say! Cheers!
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