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“Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age – within a context of manufactured sameness, image-based difference had to be manufactured with the product.”
On my way to the office this morning, I drove by one of those Red Bull branded vehicles. To be more precise, I flew by it. And as I glanced over my right shoulder and observed the passive little truck chugging along Route 101, the brand's meaning changed for me. Now this just in:
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Coca-Cola Co. is out to prove size does matter, using the Super Bowl kickoff to air a 60-second chest-beater of a spot for its Full Throttle energy drink that sports the innuendo-laced tagline “Let Your Man Out.” Coca-Cola Co. wants you to 'Let Your Man Out' with Full throttle.
The spot is part of Coke’s sponsorship of ABC’s pre-game “Full Throttle Kick-Off Show,” and throughout the segment teaser ads will air for the energy drink, along with its Vault hybrid energy soda, leading up to a 60-second spot for Full Throttle that caps the pre-kick advertising pod. In the commercial from Mother, New York, hoards of men shed the shackles of their everyday grocery shopping, car buffing and jogging to hop into whatever vehicle is handy and draft off of the alpha-maleness of a passing Full Throttle monster truck.
But Coke also takes the radical step of tweaking category leader Red Bull: The commercial shows a tractor trailer carrying a massive replica of a 16-ounce Full Throttle can charging up behind a mini truck that’s hauling a relatively puny replica of an 8-ounce Red Bull can. The unsubtle reference is to the leader of an energy drink category quickly moving toward 16-ounce and 24-ounce cans. Speculation has swirled for months that Red Bull, which remains at 8 ounces, will be forced to super-size as rivals chip away at its market share.
Note: When you observe image-based branding - as opposed to the enhancement and promotion of superior products, services and people - you're experiencing sameness, plain and simple.
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Tom is timely, thought provoking and all about the new brand vision packaged as a Seinfeld stand up. I went to school on his ideas.
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com and CEO, Eons.
How about making Red Bull and Vault taste better? That would be a good start.
Posted by: olivier blanchard | February 01, 2006 at 11:47 PM