When Good Advertising Ideas Derail
July 18th, 2009 by Bob Bly
Oscar Mayer’s great innovation was to create a brand in a product category (hot dogs) in which no brands had previously existed.
Other marketing innovators to introduce branded products into categories that previously lacked brands include Frank Perdue (chicken) and Orville Redenbacher (popcorn).
Anyway, one of Oscar Mayer’s brand promotions is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, a car modified to look ike a giant hot dog on wheels.
Last week, one of the drivers (there is a small fleet of Wienermobiles) had an accident — and crashed the giant frankfurter into a house, damaging the deck and garage.
This isn’t a brand-destroying tragedy, but when you put brand promises on the road, the potential for one exists.
The most famous took place in 1988, when a Domino’s Pizza delivery truck struck and killed two pedestrians while on its way to deliver a hot, fresh pizza — guaranteed to arrive in 30 minutes.
Allegedly, the incident drove Domino’s to drop the “30 minutes or it’s free” delivery from their brand USP.
P.S. Anyone interested in food marketing or hot dogs can read the full story of Oscar Mayer and other brand innovators in my book “All-American Frank: a History of the Hot Dog” available on www.amazon.com.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.







July 18th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
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July 18th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
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July 18th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
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July 18th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
With all the recnt reports out there that people trust TV ads more than online, I’d think people would start understanding how these media could be most effectively used together – broadcast to generate Awareness and Interest, online to stimulate Desire and Action. Integrated is the most efficient approach.
July 19th, 2009 at 9:00 am
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July 20th, 2009 at 5:10 am
A lot of useful information in those links, thanks. I feel that it might even be too much for me to “digest” in just one week.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:49 am
The effective and most popular is the TV ads. But the online ads are going to be most popular then other media.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 am
As we are not interested in food marketing but I think I must read the Oscar Mayer’s story. thanks for sharing.
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