No War! Yogurt - Politics in Product Ads

[asd345]

The idea is to combine Product with a political message. As a fraction of the earnings a a company makes of a product goes into advertising anyway, it might just combine it with a message
For example: On every ad for this yoghurt there will be a „End the war Now!“ sign. So by buying it, you support a political standpoint that you think makes society better. Its good for the company as it can sell more products and good for your conscience. An additional argument for companies might be that its something totally new and creative, standing out from the boring lies of normal advertising. So even if seen cynically, its might become a trend.
The problem that some people do not like the message could be solved by have the same yoghurt a few cents cheaper without the message. Or even a version with a „Pro War!“ advertising, if the company can agree on that in terms of public image and mental health.

The whole thing could be started as a company specialising in selling normal stuff politically. Or, maybe easier, as a marketing agency, that cooperates with sellers on the market by for example putting political stickers on their products and so financing political ads.

[billbenson]

I can see it now "Vote for Romney because he likes Yoplait yogurt". Nancy Pelosi would probably even vote for Romney.

[Gabe]

I recommend staying away from politics, it'll hurt the brand. Most people's political opinions are just like religious beliefs, strong sentiment without much reason. Just like most people are of a religious affiliation because they were born into it, most people have political beliefs without ever having put much thought into it or considering the opposite. If you are sponsoring an end the war campaign, how many people putting together the campaign or buying the product have ever even been to war? How many can honestly say what's going on with the war? It's vacuous. Whether you're talking about war, the environment, abortion or immigration...you'll destroy your brand. If you're advertising guns or the morning after pill, yeah ok, but yogurt? Come on. Don't ruin your brand's reputation after a poorly thought out, trend-chasing, marketing gimmick. If you're after that, just put Che's face on all of your yogurt cups so you'll at least get the college kids.

If you want to go after a cause to make people feel good, go after something that most people can agree on like education, breast cancer, hunger, bringing back Arrested Development, etc.

[Harold Mansfield]

Products and companies associating with a social, or political stand is nothing new.

Social and Humanitarian issues are safer than political ones. They do it all of the time. Nike, Benetton, Calvin Klein, Johnson & Johnson, Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, and the list goes on.

Very few people are going to be against saving wildlife, rainforests, hunger or some kind of disease. But when you start taking a stand on things like war, guns, abortion or supporting a political candidate you are bound to run into issues. Not just from paying customers with opposing views, but even from those that agree and don't want their politics mixed in with what kind of pizza delivery they order.

Why take the risk? There have been countless recent stories where companies have screwed the pooch by getting their brand involved in a political area where they really didn't belong, had nothing to do with the brand or the company, and was completely out of place.

Most times these things aren't the result of a planned marketing strategy, it's the big mouth of one person at the head of the company that thinks because they make pizza that somehow everyone gives a crap about their personal politics. They don't. And most times I'll cross that company off my list of ones that I'll spend money with...not because they have an opposing viewpoint, but because they are too stupid to just shut up and take my money regardless of who I vote for.

By going out of their way to associate their brand with one side or another, they have now made me take a stand just to order a stupid pizza ( yeah, I'm talking about Papa Johns) . If you just take his case by itself, not only were his comments out of place, but he also assumed that I'm an idiot because what he said had no real basis of fact. Or that adding 14 cents to the price of a pizza was big enough to make a nationwide statement about. Who would care so much about a fast food pizza joint that it would make them change their political position? A true idiot.

That was more offensive than what side he took and why I'll never order another Papa Johns pizza ever in my life and hope that company goes belly up. And as one who works from a home office and rarely plans meals or feels like cooking, I used to order from Papa Johns at least 1-3 times a month and (being from Michigan) have been a customer for YEARS. Now I'm done. Now what if a few thousand people in each city feel the same way that I do?

Not only that, but companies who do this have also now forced politics into their relationship with other accounts and suppliers, and most smart businesses want to stay as far from that as possible becasue they don't need the backlash one way or another.

Mixing politics and business can be the kiss of death.

[huggytree]

i see nothing positive about making 1/2 your potential customers dislike your product

keep away from politics with your business

ive stopped buying products because the owners express their political views and i dont want my $$ to go their political charity

[billbenson]

Look at the recent Chick-fil-A thing. They took a strong position against gay marriage. So they got a bunch of supporters of that position on one day, most of whom never eat at Chick-fil-A. And they had a gay kiss in protest in their restaurants a couple of days later. They certainly lost the entire gay population and gay sympathizer as a result. They probably gained about 7 customers that agreed with them and also liked their food.

[jbechtold]

I completely agree with huggy tree. Mixing business and politics is just a bad idea. Instead think about a none-profit like Harold Mansfield suggested.

[ozetel]

Yes I would have to agree with the majority of the replies - stay away from the political connection. I dont think there is a benefit to it as a whole. Win me over with your product and service and relationship as a customer and then use those financial connections to make a stand for assistance with war veterans or an education to the public of the effects of war and how you are contributing to lessening that. Then the snowball effect will happen with new client bases. Business is Business and that is the first consideration in my view.

Politics + Business = No No No No No NO - just like Politics and Sport (another discussion yes I agree).

[asd345]

Ok, thats pretty clear, thanks.

[Freelancier]

I'll go the other way and say: it depends on your product and your best potential client.

Think about who listens to talk radio. Someone who is engaged to an extent in politics, likely older, male. If that's your best potential client (or a superset of them), then it makes sense to piggyback on their audience affiliation. Same goes with politics. Whose politics are you trying to appeal to at the expense of everyone else's? Does that market comprise the vast majority of your universe of potential clients? If so, then it might actually INCREASE your client loyalty, because politics these days is very tribal and tribal loyalties can override a lot of negatives.

How about an example? Let's say your company makes a birth control product that's new. Already, your company is political, even if you didn't want it to be, since birth control is suddenly a hot political topic again. Do you run from it or embrace it? I'd recommend embracing it and going with an ad saying something like "it's your choice, not theirs". Who do you lose? The people you don't care about anyway. But you might increase tribal loyalty amongst your best potential clients.

So let's say you have an energy drink. Do you make that political? Well, if you thought it was the best drink ever for a demographic that is heavily favoring one political party or another, you might make yourself a political target, just to increase loyalty. You might publicly fund one campaign or another, just to establish your bonafides.

But, as others have pointed out, you have to be careful and really sure of your market (and your ability to adapt to a demographic shift in your market), just because your market could leave you over the course of a couple of elections.

Going back to the energy drink: let's say you made cases of energy drink with different wrappers, one that said that 10% of profits went to Americans for Tax Reform, another that said 10% of profits went to Planned Parenthood, and another that said 10% of profits went to a PAC supporting the Libertarian Party. And you ship them to stores based on a store's demographics. Would that increase your sales in that area? Maybe. What if you sent a random sample to the stores in an area and made it a public competition to see which organization would receive more funds (basically, which tribe is stronger in a particular area)? Would that increase sales? Quite possibly.

But it comes back to: KNOW YOUR BEST CLIENTS and learn how to cater to them.