In an effort to contemporize its brand, Oscar Mayer has moved on from jingles to an original pop song, updated it's imagery with beautifully shot young adults enjoying their products, and appropriated a themeline that Old Milwaukee beer used in the '80s.The new song (which you can hear here) is written by Joy Williams, a songwriter whose oeuvre includes original works for American Idol – apparently that's supposed to give it some street cred. Much like Oscar's products, the song is bland enough to appeal to a wide range of people. And images from the print campaign appear to be lifted right out of the pop-culture pantheon including Lady and the Tramp. Everything is incredibly well executed and thoroughly professional, but it doesn't do anything to change my perceptions of the brand. And it's certainly not new. Which brings me to the theme line...
I guess I shouldn't have expected an original idea from this mainstream American brand, and maybe I'm the only one to remember it, but it just seems odd that they'd steal a slogan from a popular priced beer brand and use it as a tag for a campaign that's supposed to bring Oscar Mayer into this century. Go figure.
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Harvey, I couldn't agree more with you. I love Oscar Mayer as much as the next guy but this new campaign theme doesn't move the needle for me. It seems a little vanilla for me.
ReplyDeleteIt is vanilla. They are owned by Kraft. When the Oscar Mayer family owned it; the ad work was doled out all over the greater Madison market and amazing creative happened. One of my freinds who was a summer tour guide at the plant on Packers Avenue used to say the motto over theentry door read "Everything but the oink."
ReplyDeleteThis campaign lacks the oink- IMHO. I do like the way they've integrated social media into the overall campaign fabric.
Harvey, what's your take on the current tourism winter campaign?