Thanks to Jason for barking in this info about Miller Beer’s new ad campaign using fake lost dog ads spread around neighborhoods.
In my other life as a consultant I’ve seen a lot of insensitive ad campaigns launched by “creatives” who just want to get attention but this is pretty despicable and stupid. Miller is trying to virally promote Miller Beer with fake lost dog ads. Did anyone think this through? Unfortunately not.
Let’s see. Nail up posters in neighborhoods saying you’ve lost a dog so people will call in and get verbally spammed to drink Miller Beer. Did these “creatives” even stop to think that how poor an idea this was on soooo many levels?
1–People who haven’t seen a Dalmatian wandering around are NOT going to call. (Of course, if the ad agency can solve that problem by releasing a lot of Dalmatians so people WILL call in but I really hope THAT wasn’t part of the plan…)
2– Someone calling in is going to be ticked off, not amused, when they get verbally spammed by Miller.
3–Who asumed that people interested in helping lost dogs even drink beer, much less Miller? Talk about a waste of money and time for the client! That should be enough to get someone fired at the ad agency that conceived this abominable campaign AND whoever approved it for Miller!
4–The absolute worst aspect of this campaign has been pointed out in other blogs, Pet Rescuer Central and further commented on in the Me Find Home.org, is that the fake posters will actually discourage people from looking at real lost dog posters. We are barraged with a ton of useless information everyday so if we start thinking lost pet ads are just more effluvia, how likely are we to try to help?
All in all Miller you have really stepped in the dog pop here.
This campaign reminds me of when I was working with a marketing firm here in St. Louis years ago and the firm got asked to come up with some promotional ideas for Energizer batteries. The idea the marketing firm owner decided to pitch to the Energizer folks, over my strong objections, was to launch a line of collectible batteries for kids. Yup, you read that right; collectible batteries for kids. Fortunately for Energizer they were smarter than the guy running the marketing firm I worked for AND the Miller executives involved with this fake poster gambit.
Okay Miller, if you want to make nice may I suggest big contributions to some animal rescue groups and maybe even a PSA or two about rescuing and adopting animals?
