Barketing
Baltimore athletes show their “soft side” in a campaign to end animal abuse. This is one really great example of how to use celebrities properly. While it may not always work to use a famous face in your campaign, it’s done really well here. Well-known, manly figures in the sports world are used to spread this message in a silly, yet adorable way. The coolest part is that they’re taking the stereotype of a tough, masculine sports player and poking fun at it.
The best thing to take away from this is that you can use celebrities in a similar way for your nonprofit marketing campaigns. By asking a celebrity who is either working to support your cause or someone completely unexpected, you can grab some serious attention. The men in this campaign wouldn’t normally be pegged as particularly sensitive, but that’s why it works. It’s completely unexpected, but also gets the point across.
If you’d like to learn more about the Show Your Soft Side campaign, visit their Facebook Page.
While I was looking through some ads against animal abuse, I found a really interesting campaign that Deutscher Tierschutz created pairing cute animals with disturbing animal rights issues. This one, which advocates for animal protection laws focused in animal testing, is a great example of how to use humor when addressing a very real problem. The cute characters catch your attention and the tagline is clever. While it might seem inappropriate to combine animal abuse with cuddly, cute cartoons, I think it actually works really well here.
Tierschutz has created a whole campaign around the idea of animal rights protection. Some other issues he brings up are horse branding, animal skinning, and anesthetic-free castration. All of these ads include very real messages with a silly image associated with them; do you think Tierschutz makes it work?
Recently McDonald’s released a series of radio ads promoting their new Chicken McBites as “less risky than petting a Pit Bull.” Really? That’s the best you could come up with? As a dog-lover, I know that not all dogs have the opportunity to grow up in a safe, loving environment and Pit Bulls seem to get a bad rap because of their bad luck. Yes, they are tough, strong dogs, but not all of them are forced into an environment which makes them aggressive. I can’t believe McDonald’s would promote such a cruel image.
Luckily, a lot of groups are speaking out against McDonald’s. One group in particular, Pit Bulls against McDonald’s, has gotten a lot of support in a short amount of time. And hundreds of people have already signed Change.org’s petition. Goes to show how many people are ready to defend Pitties when a big company starts bashing them.
In the end, McDonald’s did apologize and pulled the ad. But really McDonald’s, you thought picking on Pit Bulls was the right route for your advertisements?
I’ll admit it, I’m dog-obsessed. I work at a doggie daycare which might be the best job ever. When I’m not working with dogs, I spend my time in class learning marketing/social media/business principles from some truly talented professors at Champlain College.
My goal in writing this blog is to provide you with some insights into the marketing and animal rights worlds.
Happy reading!
Woof.
