Will today’s Chief Marketing Officers be tomorrow’s Chief Cultural Officers?
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News:
IKEA had to issue an apology after a recent spot launched in Thailand drew criticism from transgender rights groups. Angry activists lambasted the global Swedish brand, claiming the advert, which depicts a transgender lady getting so excited at a bargain in the store that her voice drops a few octaves, much to the surprise of her male companion, played on negative stereotypes and even violated the human rights of the transgender community of south-east Asia. The company have publicly apologised for the video, which aired on Youtube and to commuters on several of the country’s train networks, and issued a prompt response to the Thai Transgender Alliance, who made the original complaint. This sparked further complaints from the transgender community around the world, who poured scorn on what they saw as a demeaning, trivialising and offensive piece of advertising.
Behind the news:
The title of the ad translates approximately as “Forget To Keep Hidden” or “Forget To Deceive”, and was presumably intended to alert potential customers to the brand’s honesty and affordability in a light-hearted fashion, a fact they are keen to highlight in their carefully worded response. In Thailand, transgender females, known as Kathoeys or sometimes via the popularised anglicism ‘ladyboys’, are fully integrated and accepted members of society, with many leading successful careers in the fashion, beauty and entertainment industries. They are far from obligated to a deviant or secret lifestyle, thus the uproar caused by the advert. This campaign was a little wide of the mark from IKEA, a brand – as history dictates – do not shy away from courting controversy with provocative ad campaigns. In most cases it is the traditional values of the right that are challenged, as with this brouhaha in the US back in 2007, rather than the liberal and inclusive values championed by an organisation such as the Thai TGA. But creative work designed to provoke and entertain is almost inevitably going to alienate some members of any given market – did they overstep the line here, or is it a storm in a Thai-cup?
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News:
In a PR stunt rolled out by the fast-food giant McDonald’s, 13 branches of the restaurant in Australia will see their slogan translated to “Macca’s”, the nickname by which it is known across the country. This name change is part of this year’s Australia Day celebrations, and observes the fact that, as discovered by a recent survey, “Macca’s” is the country’s second most recognised Australianism, used by at least 50 per cent of the population (surpassed only by “footy”, referring of course to Aussie Rules football). Running for the entire month of January, the rebrand will see signage altered with the new name alongside the traditional Golden Arches, with a TV campaign to match. Mark Lollback, head of marketing at McDonald’s Australia, has said of the move: “What better way to show Aussies how proud we are to be a part of the Australian community than incorporate the name the community has given us across all our channels, even our signs?” There have also been calls to have the colloquial term incorporated into the online edition of the Macquarie Dictionary, the national record of Australian English, officially recognising its position in the local language.
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Textappeal World Blend 2013
For the 2012 New Year, the Textappeal team invented a box filled with worldly flavours of chocolates such as “peanut butter with jam”, “jasmine”, and “wasabi” as our annual gift. This posed a tough challenge for us this year, as we now have to exceed expectations for 2013!
This year we decided to create our very own blend of tea. Tea being the second most popular beverage in the world, we created an infusion of flavours that best describes our multicultural Textappeal brand.
We arranged a tea tasting session in our offices with a qualified tea master. After tasting a variety of teas and flavours, we came up with a delicious infusion of Chinese cinnamon, Spanish orange blossom, Indian rose petals, Thai red peppercorns, Mexican chilli and Madagascan vanilla.
Our Tea master also gave us a lesson on how tea is made, consumed, people’s interaction with tea and the aesthetics surrounding the art of drinking tea around the world.
It was an extremely interesting team session, but let’s not get rid of our coffee machine just yet, just in case. Watch this space to see what we have in mind for 2014!
Wishing you all the best for 2013!
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News:
Despite Tesco’s attention to detail, a piece of packaging managed to escape their notice and hit the store shelves with some questionable images.
An image appearing on their Tesco Finest range of Spaghetti Bolognese, featuring an authentic looking photo of dried meats at an Italian market turned out to feature some humorous labelling.
The photo had been on the packaging for “a long time” before an Italian-speaking customer pointed out that the signs in the photo actually read “Grandad’s balls” and ‘Donkey bollocks”. (more…)
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Image – keropokman.com
News:
Coca-cola installed a vending machine, a few months ago, on a university campus in Singapore as part of the company’s ‘Open Happiness’ campaign. This might not sound out of the ordinary, but the vending machine is a dispenser with a twist; it gives out cans of coke when hugged.
The idea is part of a global campaign, ‘Happiness Machines’, which started in 2009. Another machine set up in an American university handed out cans of coke as well as pizzas and flowers. More recently, a Friendship Machine dispensed two cokes for the price of one — but only if you had a friend to help you reach it.
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