The New Look of Sun-Maid: Sun Mistress?

It's about time the dried fruit category had a sex symbol as a brand mascot.

Sun-maid must have recently just started running ads like the one below with the new-look Sun-Maiden, because the Internet is abuzz all of a sudden, despite the fact that the new look (and the spot below, by McCann Erickson) has been around since 2007.



I assume you're familiar with the Sun-Maid girl's original identity: originally a little homely looking thing, kneeling and wearing a bonnet. The new version clearly panders to the evolving (read: degenerating) tastes of the American consuming public. But to the raisin-consuming public? I was under the impression that most people who eat raisins are between the ages of 2 and 8, or 65+.

Below is a progression of the brand identity of Sun-Maid, starting with an image of Lorraine Collett Petersen, who is the original inspiration for the logo, according to raisin industry lore.



Somehow, Sun-Maid is attempting to tie their product to healthy living by increasing their mascot's cup size. The disheveled looking raisin girl could not have possibly represented a healthy lifestyle (although if you look at the above image from 1923, you may agree with that last statement. She looks like the love child of Hester Prynne and Sasquatch.)


Regardless, I'm not willing to call this a bad move by any means. Many purists and ad history buffs are probably spewing about how inappropriate it is for Sun-Maid to inflate their mascot's bosom. Realize there's only so much you can get from the toddler and octogenarian markets before you need to expand your target and reinvent your brand, and that's clearly what Sun-Maid is trying to do. They're just living by the old axiom, when life gives you grapes, turn them into grapefruits.

Just kidding. I made that axiom up.

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I took my shirt off in public for the sake of advertising...

...or something like that.

Last week The NewHouse, the student ad agency I am a part of, took to the Quad to start a flash mob, that is, a spontaneous gathering of people in public used to garner attention from passers by for a cause.

The cause was to call attention to Hopenhagen, aka COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference which will convene in Denmark on December 7. We've since followed up with a connection to the online petition.

Several members of the agency (myself included, as evidenced in the horrifically pale image above) gathered on the Quad at 12:07 pm on Wednesday and removed our weather-appropriate attire for clothes (or lack thereof) more suited for the beach. We hope the message was clear: if we don't do something about climate change, the seasons as we know them could disappear.

Our work with this global client comes through Ogilvy and Mather, who I assume found out about TNH after our 2009 National Championship.

The flash mob was an experiment in a lot of non-traditional methods, including viral (we used facebook to the point of over-hyping the event) and guerrilla marketing. Our event drew reporters from several campus publications and the campus TV station, increasing impressions exponentially at no cost to us.

There's a lot of potential in events like these and we may begin seeing them on a larger scale. Ray Lapena, a friend and contemporary at Syracuse, organized a similar event (although his involved more clothes and more dancing) to build hype for his campus organization, First Year Players.

It's only a matter of time before these advertising messages will be appearing more often as advertisers attempt to get around people's ever-developing filter towards traditional marketing.

It helped that it wasn't freezing, like we expected. It was a mild 50 degrees, which may represent the start of global warming in Syracuse. I'm used to snow at this time.

Boobs! ... Reebok to its roots

Sometimes I forget about Reebok, and I feel bad about it. The little brother brand in the athletic footwear category seems like it's always playing third fiddle to Nike and adidas. They've been unsuccessful as of late in divergent brand efforts that have just clouded their own image.

Ads like this one are what Reebok should have always been about, political correctness be damned. Reebok started as a running shoe company (Reebok is an African term for Gazelle) and in the 50s began focusing on women's fitness, a category which they dominated while they stuck to it. This should be a remarkably large category, given that most women at least try to make an effort to exercise, and that most also have a thing for shoes. It would seem (and I'm basing this on anecdotal evidence) that women embrace traditional exercise (aerobics, running, etc) more than men, who would rather participate in competitive sports for their fitness.

This is why Reebok was foolish to ever diverge from this market in the first place. In the 21st century, Reebok has made deals with the NFL, NBA, and NHL to make exclusive apparel including jerseys. Reebok also created the "Rbk" brand, which they called a
"street" inspired brand which would feature signature shoes for Jay-Z and 50 Cent. Don't get me started on the Rbk Hockey brand, because I don't understand how Ice Hockey and Jay-Z are related (except that the management of the NHL has 99 problems, wah wah wah).

Reebok was purchased by adidas in 2005 and started to get back on track, primarily because big brother's first goal was to eliminate competition with itself. This left the Hockey brands, which included a total redesign of the NHL's uniforms:



It also left the original focus of Reebok, women's fitness and running shoes designed for those people not striving to be elite athletes. This explains the recent Run Easy campaign, which used the tag "stay fit as you see fit." It was an excellent idea, although as a runner I was somewhat insulted that running could be called easy. Many more people would probably take up running (and, therefore, buy Reebok) if running were positioned as being easy.

So this brings us back to the woman's talking boobs. This is certainly the first effort I've seen by a shoe advertisement to say "they'll give you a better butt" outright. People will certainly complain that it's degrading to women, it's taking advantage of women's bodies, blah blah blah, except that the ad is designed for women. This isn't something for men to slobber over (although I admit I did stop and look when it was on TV).

Overall, I just think it's a cool concept and it's good to see Reebok focusing it's message on what I perceive to be the correct target. Now here's another one to gawk at:

Burger King gives guys Whoppers

Yeah, the above image is from a Burger King commercial.

BK, the notoriously secondary burger joint in America, has been trying for years to keep its target away from McDonald's and other fierce, heart-disease inducing rivals. That target? Young-to-middle aged hard-working sex-obsessed men.

It has come to the point where BK's ads are obvious, shameless grabs for the attention of the Homer Simpson and Glen Quagmires of the world. Some of the ads challenge the target's masculinity (the Angry Whopper, anyone?). Others include subtly sexual imagery, which has progressed to outright innuendo.

In 2006, BK unveiled the Whopperettes in time for Super Bowl XL:

Needless to say, most of us would like to take a bite out of that sandwich.

One year later, the New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority pulled two BK ads on the grounds that they violated Advertising Codes of Practice in that country. See for yourself:

It's so big, they have to share it, too.

"Burger King has never intended to offend," said Marketing manager Megan Denize. "The ads are a light-hearted reflection of the cheeky nature of the Burger King brand. Burger King is a brand that prides itself on not taking itself too seriously. Our customers value not only our great tasting food but also our fun attitude."

Undoubtedly, at least 50% of the population values their fun, girls-bouncing-on-a-trampoline attitude.

Finally, we have BK's latest effort, this time in print. This one brought to my attention by my good friend, Danielle.

Failed tag lines for the Super Seven Incher ad? I'd guess:

• BET YOU CAN'T TAKE IT ALL

• THAT'S ALMOST 2 INCHES ABOVE AVERAGE

• FOR MAXIMUM PLEASURE...

• NOW WITH SECRET SAUCE

and of course

• SHUT UP AND SWALLOW

You've got to appreciate the King's efforts to grab hold of it's target. While McDonald's continues to become a global this-that-and-the-other-thing restaurant and Wendy's panders to those hit hard by the economy (it turns out Threeconomics is still not a college course), BK is sticking to the horny male segment of the population.

And even if they don't continue to sell their cardiac arrest on a bun, there's always the cologne market.


Have it your way, baby.

One more gift to wrap up

This cute viral ad combines a few of my favorite things...



1) Christmas
2) Crude sexual humor

Thanks, Trojan!

I love their working with college humor, which has always been great for original videos (animated and otherwise). It just seems like another rediculous CHTV production until the very end when the sponsorship becomes obvious. The best kind of ad doesn't seem like an ad, and the folks at Trojan got it right with this one.