Two Sides of the Marketing Coin

Advertising Age covers Sephora’s coffee cup lipstick smear ad (reg. req.) and raises an interesting question.

Is marketing becoming so competitive and cluttered that we’re willing to risk pissing off our target customers while getting our message to them?

On one hand, the ad surprises consumers and follows a line of unique coffee-related advertising coffee-related advertising we’ve discussed before. It’s creative and gets your attention.

But how many people drinking the coffee are Sephora’s target customers? It’s a mass approach which will initially confuse more than a few people before they’ve had their morning cuppa.

It reminds me of the Orkin television spot (circa 2000) where a bug crawls across the TV screen during a parody ad. It was so realistic there were reports of consumers breaking their TV sets trying to kill the bug.

Maybe the people with broken TV sets need to switch to decaf, but…wtf?! How bad is it getting? As the effectiveness of traditional media wanes is our reluctance towards pissing off consumers deteriorating with it?

Maybe it’s just me and I need another cuppa?

tags | advertising | marketing | Sephora | Orkin | branding | brand | Advertising Age | coffee advertising

Comments

[Colin McKay]

I have to think that's the wrong execution. The first thought through most customers' minds would be: "WTF? This is a used cup!" That's not a good association for the campaign partner - the coffee vendor.

Maybe a message scrawled in wax pen or sharpie would have worked better, without the gross-out factor.

For the next round, they should add a contest component. The lucky cup will have lipstick and a faux cigarette butt at the bottom.

I notice that AdAge didn't interview any coffee vendors to see if they had negative feedback.

[Ann Handley]

Colin nailed it: too high a gross-out factor. UGH.

[Kevin Dugan]

Somehow it all reminds me of restroom advertising. Marketers are getting a bit too intrusive advertising on everything from the walls and stalls to the urinal cakes themselves. But this is one place I do not feel the need to multi-task thankyouverymuch.

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