Just discovered Jaffe Juice, the blog of "new marketer" Joseph Jaffe. Gloves-off commentary on the current state of marketing, both new media and otherwise. Here's his take on the Carl's Jr. Paris Hilton ad:
What we have here, is 1000% unabashed borrowed interest at least 2x over - not only in Paris Hilton, but she herself is leaning on her trademark "that's hot" line.
What saddens me here is that this is nothing more than the "go daddy" efforts rehashed and repurposed. When no one is prepared to take a risk anymore, the biggest risk taken is to drink from the swill of cheap laughs, old ideas and appealing to the lowest common denominator.
Legitimate marketers and their agents are most likely staring at this campaign and its "perceived success" in terms of buzz, visibility etc., wondering what to do next; where to go from here; possibly thinking about how base and worthless their profession has become. Or perhaps they're ramming their heads against a brick wall cursing the fact they didn't go there first, in which case I hope it hurts REAL bad.
There may be tie-in to the word "hot", but then what? Does this make me care more about Carl's? Not a bit. Do I feel like a chicken burger? A little, just not sure I want it from Carls. Do I feel compelled to find out where my nearest Carls is? Not really. This is the danger associated with borrowed interest. The question is to what extent consumers are participating purely for PH or to find out more about the product. We all know the answer to this.
If Carl's Jr is out to the corner the market for teen boys, so be it, but I suspect they'll need a little more traffic than that.
Good stuff--read the whole thing--and there's plenty more where that came from. Bonus link to a howlingly funny remix of the ad overdubbed with Richard Dreyfus' voiceover from Apple's "Here's To The Crazy Ones" spot. Hat tip for the link to Jaffe to Rick Bruner at Executive Summary--nice to see he hasn't packed it in entirely.
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