Underachieve and you can win!

Fast food companies have always targeted male teens. But with so many of them turning off their TVs and radios, the game had to change. While reading Ad Age’s post about fast food’s latest efforts, one thing is coming apparently clear. They’re promoting young males to be more slacker-y and douche-y.

A few examples AdAge used included:

Burger King’s Facebook De-Friending Campaign

• Their campaign was to get people to de-friend, notify those Facebook friends they were de-friended in order to win a free burger.
• This falls into the douche category.

Jack in the Box’s Gutterbowl League

• This campaign rewarded guys with the lowest score in bowling (i.e. getting gutterballs).
• This falls into the slacker column

While most of the article focuses on Carl Jr.’s pursuit of the teenage male, I was more focused on the messages of what males should want to be.

I can only speak for myself, a 21 year old female. And as myself, I’m not a fan of this. Not only do I not want to date a loser, I don’t want to date a jerk either! And advertisers are promoting these qualities as cool and desirable. While these burger joint campaigns make for a nice juxtaposition to AXE’s guys seeking girl approval campaign (disclosure: AXE Hair Crisis was the latest campaign I worked on), I don’t know which of these qualities are something we should be pushing as cool.

Sure, I’m a fan of good looking guys and ones that listen to me, but at the same time, I’m not sure I want a girly man. But on the other hand, should we be promoting negative qualities as cool? Especially, in this economy, underachieving should not be shown as favorable! Ideally, winning and being the opposite of a jerk should be looked upon as cool. However, those qualities don’t make for a scandalous or flashy campaign.

I know what gets attention, and jaw-dropping antics are more interesting to watch and more buzz worthy (I’m still in awe of the De-Friending campaign), but still, shouldn’t we as advertisers and mass communicators use our powers for good and to change popular opinion? Hell, “bringing home the bacon” is a positive use a manly thing (bacon) in a positive light.

Image Source: Sheldon Art Association’s Flickr, Cal Coast Web Design’s Flickr

‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is so close I can see it!

Besides loving the Internet and music, I also love movies. And one movie I’ve been patiently awaiting for is Spike Jonzes’ adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. Not only was that one of my favorite children’s books, but I also love Jonzes’ ability to make surreal, yet mostly mainstream films.

Judging from the one clip that was leaked about 6 months ago, it looks good. There was also some controversy regarding the film being too strange and not for children, but it is still going to be released and a trailer is expected to drop in the next two weeks or so.

As you can see, the poster is brilliant. That’s the latest update on the film, as far as I know. For more info, check their IMDB entry, and my BODB post.

Image source: /film, via Geeks of Doom