It is quite remarkable that there are still marketers and advertising people around who think that as long as one restricts controversial advertising to a tiny niche target market, there won't be any fallout. And it is equally remarkable that there are marketers and advertising strategists about who weren't paying attention in class when rule #1 was being read out - the one about “stay away from religion and race in advertising campaigns”.
Now Nissan is feeling the wrath of two such blunders by its distributor in Israel who wanted to get across the message that the Nissan Tiida could assuage the anger of motorist who felt they were being raped by the high price of petrol.
The TV commercial was only flighted a few times on Israeli TV and showed a group of Arab men in their distinctive dress walking towards a big limo. One of them spots a Nissan Tiida parked nearby and loses his temper, kicking the car and flinging himself onto the bonnet at the same time yelling; “You destroyed my home! May God destroy your home! Hawks should peck at you day and night.” A voiceover adds: “It's clear the oil companies won't like you.”
Viral effect
Nissan's head office and its Arab states distributor distanced themselves from the Israeli ad campaign and in spite of the ad being stopped, viral copies started circulating on emails and YouTube, with the result that millions of people all over the world have seen it.
Not surprisingly, the Arab States have reacted with anger.
While it might be argued that the ad will appeal to a lot of people who have been hammered by the massive rise in the price of petrol, there will also be a lot of people who don't take kindly to racial stereotyping and even more who will shake their heads at the stupidity of it all.
In this day and age the challenge for marketers is to try and be all things to all men and women, even if this is virtually impossible. It certainly doesn't make for efficient advertising to go out of one's way to alienate a huge section of the market.
Chris Moerdyk is a corporate marketing analyst and advisor and former head of strategic planning and public affairs at BMW SA. He spent 16 years in ad agencies ending up as resident director of Lindsay Smithers FCB (KwaZulu-Natal). He pioneered and was the first editor of the media and marketing pages in the Saturday Star.
Moerdyk is a specialist contributor to Bizcommunity.com.
Email: cmoerdyk@mweb.co.za Visit Chris Moerdyk's press office.
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