The situation of a wife catching a husband on line with his insurance agent and thinking he is talking with a woman leads one’s mind so far away from any kind of Expectation related to insurance, that the commercial never resolves itself into a real message.   The slogan of “Get to a better state,” is a nice try for Linkage to State Farm, but nothing in this spot leads me to even consider switching insurance.   In fact, the spot leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth for the Brand.

Will  your grandchild know what an OREO is, or was?  How about a Reese’s?  Our experience is that a brand has one single pivot foot and that it can move one step from the pivot foot only, much like a power forward in basketball.  Take the second step or pivot on the second foot and you are walking.

In the case of both OREO and Reese’s, their individual brand pivot foot was a form factor, not a taste.  In my opinion, both brands are walking.  OREO has so many form factors on the market now that the next generation will not know the original brand from which they were extended.  And OREO even has line extensions that are vanilla and vanilla, not even consistent with the black and white taste combo.  Makes no brand sense.   There are Reese’s now that bear neither taste nor form relation to the parent brand which is for those of you who might have never known is the peanut butter cup.   Note that I did not say “a” peanut butter cup.  Reese’s was “the” peanut butter cup.  Will it be in twenty years?

I predict that this may not end well.

Since when did “tricking”  the prospect become a valid technique for advertising?

First of all, this is the most functional dust pan I have ever used, and nothing else is close.  You set it on the floor and sweep into it.  You do not have to bend over.  It grips the floor.

Secondly, the industrial design is so differentiating and sleek that it could be award winning architecture were it a monument.  It stands up for storage and to make it easy to use as a waste pan.  It definitely should make the MOMA.   Today after the photos, I am just leaving it out because I enjoy looking at it.  Similar to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, it is pleasing from every angle and perspective.

Where did they miss out?  Well, if it has a name, I cannot find it.  I think it may have been part of the Oxo line which has many great industrial designs, but nothing is stamped into the plastic so I cannot tell you.  No name, no patent filing number.  Easy enough to have molded in, but nothing.  What a wasted opportunity.

And wow, would this respond to advertising.  I think that every home in America should have this dust pan.  It is awesome in every way.  I may try using it as a piece of functional sculpture.

I have seen this commercial about 6 times over the weekend.  I have not a clue as to what product or service is being advertised.  I can remember the action almost verbatim, but nothing about a product, never mind which product.

What a waste of time, talent and money.   I really hate to say, but no excuse for this kind of advertising from advertising professionals on either the agency or client side.

This formula comes out of the tube in a red and white swirl and turns pink while using.

AM I THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD WHO DOES NOT WANT A TOOTHPASTE THAT REMINDS ME OF GUMS BLEEDING?

1. You do not confuse the consumer.
2. This means don’t make revolutionary changes in your packaging all at once unless it is to fix a terrible problem, which Gatorade did not have.
3. Gatorade was fine.  A change from where they were to where they are now, even if it made sense, should have been taken in no fewer than four steps of evolutionary changes.
4. READ AGAIN.  You do not confuse your consumer.
5. The items in this line defy understanding

Proof.  I am what one could consider a Gatorade fanatic, having been given it first in 1963 by a University of Florida athletic trainer before the brand was introduced to the public.

Last weekend in the Montana mountains, I suffered an injury and was really dehydrated, and decided to go shop the new Gatorade line to see if I could find something for me (being a diabetic now).  I looked and read every package.  I can remember G and G2.  There were four other variants there, and I cannot remember the name of a single one.

I finally chose the ZERO with no calories because the G2 still had too much sugar for me.

AHA.  YES, YOU ARE CORRECT!!  Zero is not Gatorade.  Zero is Powerade which I did not discover for myself until I was back at the hotel drinking it.

This is not an isolated incident.  I have heard at least  a dozen consumers complaining about Gatorade confusion on an “unaided” basis.  This is going to cost some real money.  You just don’t go out of your way to confuse your users, particularly when they are already giving you more than a billion dollars a year of their business.

This is a marketing travesty.

I have seen at least six spots.  But as attuned to advertising as I am, I am not sure who this advertising is for.  I think the management team meeting is supposed to be at the cable company but I take nothing specific enough away from these spots, certainly nothing that would make me even think about switching to Direct TV.

The copy story is just too complicated.  In today’s shorter message lengths, simple is more important than ever.

But tonight an associate called me to tell me that she went to the store to buy Gatorade AND WALKED RIGHT BY IT AND COULD NOT FIND IT.  She asked store personnel to help AND THEY COULD NOT FIND IT.

Friends, what someone did to Gatorade is the worst marketing mistake that I have seen in my 40 years of brand marketing.  IT IS PERFECTLY DREADFUL.

I worked on this brand when it was owned by Quaker, helped defend it successfully against Powerade and Allsport, laid the strategic framework for the “Be Like Mike” advertising.  Gatorade has been one of the best examples of a Killer Brand since it was introduced way back in the sixties, one of the only brands that has never had a down year since introduction.  We are talking about one of the best brands ever.

NOT ANY MORE.  For the last year or so, Gatorade has introduced line extensions that no one I know can figure out.  What the devil is Gatorade Rain?  Now this new line and the radical change in packaging is perfectly awful.   Gatorade is such a big brand that this change will likely really hurt Pepsi.  Here is what you can do.

First, if you own Pepsi shares sell them or short them.

Two, if you ever interview anyone associated with this change at any level, DO NOT HIRE THEM.

Third, if ever approached by the package design firm responsible, lock your doors and don’t let them near your brand.

Fourth, never ever make this kind of mistake on your business.  I know eight year olds who know this is a bad idea.  And not a one of them has an MBA.

Our firm resigned a very big client about fifteen years ago because we learned that a screw machine in a mixer had been out of registration and had left small metal shavings in literally millions of cookies.  The CEO had the finance department estimate the least expensive course of action, recall or reimbursement of dental and medical expenses from consumers who developed problems from eating the cookies.

The CEO and finance and sales went with reimbursement over the objections of marketing, thereby guaranteeing that many of their brand users would get sick, and that the problem would be skewed towards their heavy users.

We resigned the client on the spot, because of 1) ethics and 2) stupidity.  At the time this was one of the two biggest brand names in cookies.  I don’t know that the word ever got out over this incident.  I don’t know how many problems were caused or what the amount of reimbursements were paid out.   But the particular brand, Keebler is no longer such a big name in cookies.

There has never been a dollar created that was more important to make than it is to keep a customer.  Profit is never more important than people.