Latest / Presented by Speaking Human / #199: Doritos Gets Stranger

Transcript

#199: Doritos Gets Stranger · Presented by Speaking Human

0:00
Speaker 1: Speaking Human. Today, on Speaking Human, we crunch into Dorito's
0:09
Speaker 1: Stranger Things, telethon stunt and unwrap the best of this
0:13
Speaker 1: year's Halloween ad, tricks and treats. Speaking Human.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
0:30
Speaker 2: marketing for humans. I'm Shad, calmly and with me is
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Speaker 2: my co host Patrick Jebber.
0:37
Speaker 1: Trick or Treat Shad, Trick or treat, Trick or treat.
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Speaker 2: It's here again, just like it's like comes every year.
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Speaker 1: This is the year, though I know you're gonna smell
0:47
Speaker 1: my feet.
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Speaker 2: I am hoping it's not. You can only dodge it
0:53
Speaker 2: so many years.
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Speaker 1: You know the rule. If you don't want to smell
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Speaker 1: my feet, then you got to give me something good
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Speaker 1: to eat.
1:00
Speaker 2: So well, it's so subjective, do you Is it what
1:03
Speaker 2: you consider good or what I consider good.
1:06
Speaker 1: It's definitely what you consider good, not what I consider good.
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Speaker 2: I'm just I'm thinking of Resi's cup works every.
1:12
Speaker 1: Year, it really does. I mean, you can't go wrong,
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Speaker 1: you just it's really hard to go wrong. Have you
1:18
Speaker 1: tried the new peanut butter and jelly greasy cups?
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Speaker 2: No? But I tried the oreo.
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Speaker 1: Oh do you try that. Yeah, those are good.
1:28
Speaker 2: They're all right.
1:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are good. I like them. A little bit
1:31
Speaker 1: of crunch in there.
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Speaker 2: Did you like the peanut butter jelly ones? Because that
1:36
Speaker 2: sounds kind of gross jelly.
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Speaker 1: It's actually not too bad. It is weird at first,
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Speaker 1: because like in your mind, you think jelly, but it's
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Speaker 1: actually like a little glaze. It's not really what you expect.
1:48
Speaker 1: It's almost like the Lava ones if you remember the
1:51
Speaker 1: Lava Yeah, it came out about the same time. There
1:54
Speaker 1: was I think a commercial about them, and it's not
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Speaker 1: what you expect. I thought it was going to be
2:00
Speaker 1: like this weird hot chocolate lava in the bottom of
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Speaker 1: but it's not.
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Speaker 2: Like a jelly donut.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just not quite what you anticipate. But it's
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Speaker 1: not bad. The peanut butter and jelly was different. It
2:13
Speaker 1: was different and not different in a horrible way. It
2:16
Speaker 1: was stranger than I thought it would be.
2:18
Speaker 2: Well, they're trying some new things, they're throwing some things
2:20
Speaker 2: out there.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so trivia for today, getting everyone into the Halloween mood,
2:26
Speaker 1: getting in everyone into the Stranger Things mood. Maybe the
2:30
Speaker 1: Stranger Things five is coming out in November, not in October,
2:34
Speaker 1: which is kind of a weird move for me.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like it was right there, but you know,
2:40
Speaker 2: they're kind of doing a holiday thing with it, releasing
2:42
Speaker 2: during the holidays. Is there a strategy here?
2:46
Speaker 1: Isn't Halloween a holiday?
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Speaker 2: Though?
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Speaker 1: So like, why wouldn't you?
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Speaker 2: It's not stay home holiday. It's not like Thanksgiving and Christmas?
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Speaker 1: I guess true? True? All right, so here's a marketing
2:57
Speaker 1: related question for you. Okay, we're starting things off in
3:01
Speaker 1: the upside down to set the tone, all right, in
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Speaker 1: the world of Stranger Things, Chad, what brand of snack
3:08
Speaker 1: food did the character eleven famously steal from a grocery
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Speaker 1: store in season one?
3:15
Speaker 2: I know this.
3:16
Speaker 1: You don't need the multiple choice, right, No, I.
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Speaker 2: Don't think I need it.
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Speaker 1: Okay, what is it?
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Speaker 2: It's pop tarts?
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Speaker 1: No?
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Speaker 2: No, not pop tarts? Oh? Wasn't she had the pop tarts?
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Speaker 2: I was so confident. Well, I guess I need the
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Speaker 2: multiple choice then?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right? Was it a Doritos b not pop tarts?
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Speaker 1: You've already he.
3:40
Speaker 2: Was pop tarts? Okay, we've eliminated that one.
3:42
Speaker 1: Was it c Ago waffles or d pringles?
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Speaker 2: See it's a go waffles?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you would have definitely got that wrong. Yeah I
3:53
Speaker 1: did technically, But.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know why I had pop tarts on
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Speaker 2: my mind, but that's right.
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Speaker 1: She was.
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Speaker 2: Ago waffles were her thing. I had like totally the
4:00
Speaker 2: brain melted, mixed it up. I was like pop tarts.
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Speaker 2: It was like clear as day. But no, now that
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Speaker 2: you say it, I'm like, oh, yeah, Ago waffles were
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Speaker 2: her thing. The confidence though I had such thoughts. I
4:14
Speaker 2: almost if I would have listened to myself, i'd be
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Speaker 2: like that guy knows he's right.
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Speaker 1: For a second, I thought you had like telekinetic powers
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Speaker 1: like her, because you looked at me and you're like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I know, don't even give me the options.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, this is what happens when a show hasn't
4:30
Speaker 2: been on for ten years.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is true when you have a show that
4:34
Speaker 1: has that length of time, especially between seasons. Yeah, you
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Speaker 1: forget things. Fun fact, Ago sales actually spiked fourteen percent
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Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen after that, so I guess Netflix can
4:49
Speaker 1: technically sell almost anything.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. The kids were probably like kids who had never
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Speaker 2: heard of Ago waffles were probably like I want those things, just.
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Speaker 1: A little tidbit of what you're getting today in the episode.
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Speaker 1: Maybe there were listeners out there who were like, Shad,
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Speaker 1: how did you know?
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Speaker 2: How'd you blow it? You should have known that. Everybody
5:09
Speaker 2: knows that. Don't worry. I feel shame. I should have
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Speaker 2: known it. But it felt so good and then it
5:15
Speaker 2: was just so wrong. You know, I got it on
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Speaker 2: the multiple choice part. If there's a silver lining here,
5:21
Speaker 2: there is.
5:22
Speaker 1: There's always a silver lining.
5:23
Speaker 2: So but moving forward, Stranger Things obviously no Stranger to
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Speaker 2: product tie ins, brand collaborations. Brands have been all over
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Speaker 2: this show since it premiered, and we've got a new
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Speaker 2: one now, which is what we're going to talk about
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Speaker 2: a little here today. Said Dorito's, a brand that's actually
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Speaker 2: been around since nineteen sixty four, has teamed up one
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Speaker 2: of the most popular Netflix shows of all time. I
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Speaker 2: think Wednesday has now beat it out, but Stranger Things
5:56
Speaker 2: one of the most popular shows of all time. For
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Speaker 2: retro style mark campaign, the brand launched a statically looking
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Speaker 2: ad promoting the Dorito's Telethon for Hawkins. For those who
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Speaker 2: don't know, telethons were big in the eighties. This is
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Speaker 2: where people would call in and like pledge their donation.
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Speaker 2: This was a big thing we had on TV when
6:17
Speaker 2: you had like three channels, so you had no choice
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Speaker 2: but to watch these. But I digress. In this ad,
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Speaker 2: a spokesman in an old suit holding a bag of
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Speaker 2: Dorito's talks about the strange things happening in Hawkins, Indiana,
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Speaker 2: where the show takes place, and they need to be
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Speaker 2: bold and help out. The AD's got some serious eighties
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Speaker 2: vibes with David Hasselhoff, Paula Abdul, and even Alf in
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Speaker 2: case you don't know who that is. That is a
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Speaker 2: puppets creature who was in an eighties TV show. ALF.
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Speaker 2: ALF stands for Alien life Form, very funny, likes to
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Speaker 2: eat cats.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty sure, we've we've had a conversation or two
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Speaker 1: revolving around ALF in one of the last almost two
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Speaker 1: hundred episodes of the show.
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Speaker 2: I mean he's had to come up at least once. Right,
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Speaker 2: So those you know, those famous eighties celebrities all part
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Speaker 2: of a hotline fans can actually call at one eight
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Speaker 2: five five four Hawkins. Now, when you do call that number,
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Speaker 2: you'll hear nostalgic messages from these people, and you can
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Speaker 2: even leave your own message. With standout fan messages popping
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Speaker 2: up on social media and digital billboards in the future.
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Speaker 2: That's the plan. Anyway. The snacks themselves are in on
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Speaker 2: the action too, So Dorito's dropped a limited edition flavor
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Speaker 2: mashup Stranger Pizza x Cool Ranch, and that's also got
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Speaker 2: the hotline number printed on the bag. Plus there's a
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Speaker 2: spooky new glow in the dark Dorito's minis Flavor with
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Speaker 2: a supernatural twist. So all that stuff we got, the
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Speaker 2: digital content, we've got the nostalgic marketing and the product
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Speaker 2: tie ins, giving us a full trip back to nineteen
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Speaker 2: eighty seven from Dorito's. Patrick thoughts on this Dorito's campaign
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Speaker 2: for Stranger Things so working for you? Did you like it?
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Speaker 2: Dislike it? Did it stir up some emotions inside of you?
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Speaker 2: Did it take you back?
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Speaker 1: So many emotions? So many emotions. Did you mention the
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Speaker 1: did you see the collisions? Did you say collisions?
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Speaker 2: I meant yeah, I mentioned the They had the you know,
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Speaker 2: flavor mashup, which is the collisions that's the Stranger Pizza
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Speaker 2: and Cool Ranch like together.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I watched a few of these, like people who
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Speaker 1: did the taste test reviews of this. Yeah, they're generally
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Speaker 1: pretty funny. Anytime you watch people do taste test videos,
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Speaker 1: you know, like we've done them before for you know,
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Speaker 1: speaking human. It's always kind of funny because watching people
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Speaker 1: eat food and then tell you what they think of.
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Speaker 2: It is, yes, is it a positive or people like
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Speaker 2: it can't be that gross to Dota And there's got
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Speaker 2: cool range Dorito's in there.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's stranger pizza flavor. They said it's pretty close
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Speaker 1: to pizza, not just you know, the nacho cheese or
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Speaker 1: whatever it is. That's normal. And it's got a little
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Speaker 1: heat to it from a couple of the reviews, so
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Speaker 1: it's not straight up Dorito's. Yeah, with the cool ranch.
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Speaker 1: What I like about that is it's interesting that they
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Speaker 1: put them both in the same bag. That's a weird thing.
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Speaker 2: I like that.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's super weird though, because you've never seen them
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Speaker 1: do that before, and I like that. I do like
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Speaker 1: that anyway. The original question was what do you think
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Speaker 1: this telethon campaign checks some boxes for me? You know,
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Speaker 1: we talk about it all the time. It's retro, you know,
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Speaker 1: retro ish in some cases it leans into the eighties,
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Speaker 1: you know, which is near and dear to our hearts.
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Speaker 1: So I like that part. And it has a spooky
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Speaker 1: theme which for me, it's connected to this Stranger Things,
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Speaker 1: which I loved watching with my family. So there's personal
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Speaker 1: boxes there for me, and I like those. But I
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Speaker 1: think generally, as like a marketing campaign, it works really well.
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Speaker 1: I think it's because they went a little bit beyond
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Speaker 1: the norm. They went a little bit more immersive than
10:18
Speaker 1: most efforts like this, Like most collabs generally just they
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Speaker 1: phone it in. Yeah, you know, no pun intended with
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Speaker 1: the telethon, They just phone it in. So I like that,
10:29
Speaker 1: and I think the one probably slightly negative that I
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Speaker 1: felt when I watched the ad, which maybe there's going
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Speaker 1: to be more to this as time goes on to
10:38
Speaker 1: leading up to the show and stuff. The one negative
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Speaker 1: is like it was short, Like I wanted a little
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Speaker 1: bit more. That would be my only negative takeaway from
10:48
Speaker 1: that portion of the campaign of the collaboration. You know,
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Speaker 1: it felt really quick, So maybe it's like all this
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Speaker 1: other immersive stuff is supposed to take the place of that,
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Speaker 1: and so they didn't want to like drag that out,
11:00
Speaker 1: you know, Like the calling and the phone number. I
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Speaker 1: love that part. I called in the phone number a
11:04
Speaker 1: few times just to hear it, Like first time I
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Speaker 1: got alf which was great, total flashback to our childhood.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I also got ALF.
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Speaker 1: Did you get ALF the first time?
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Speaker 2: Yeah? I got off twice.
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Speaker 1: Oh see. I called back to get ALF again because
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Speaker 1: I wanted to record it. I was like, I want
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Speaker 1: to record this. And it didn't record the first time.
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Speaker 1: I was like crap. So I called back and I
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Speaker 1: got the girl Erica. A little Yeah, I got Erica,
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Speaker 1: and I was like, ah, I got Erica.
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Speaker 2: I don't I wonder if it's like a they track
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Speaker 2: your number and do like a certain order, because that's
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Speaker 2: kind of I got ALF. I got ALF again, and
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Speaker 2: then I got Erica.
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Speaker 1: Okay, and I haven't you know.
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Speaker 2: That was the number of times I called.
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Speaker 1: I got Alf Erica, and then I was going to
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Speaker 1: call it third and I didn't. The point is I
11:46
Speaker 1: really like that, and I think, you know, just even
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Speaker 1: that alone, like if it had been the ad and that,
11:52
Speaker 1: I would have been like, that's cool. That's a cool campaign.
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Speaker 1: You know, they put in the extra effort to make it,
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Speaker 1: you know, somewhat entertaining.
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Speaker 2: I'm with you. I like this, and it's for a
12:03
Speaker 2: lot of the reasons you said, you know, I just
12:05
Speaker 2: love it all in campaign. I think a lot of
12:07
Speaker 2: people would have just done the ad and that's kind
12:10
Speaker 2: of it, you know what I mean. They would have
12:11
Speaker 2: been like, hey, we're tied in with Stranger Things. Maybe
12:14
Speaker 2: they would have put like a Stranger Thing stamp on
12:17
Speaker 2: the bag or something like that. Yeah, but this has gone,
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Speaker 2: you know, the extra mile here. It's like layered it in.
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Speaker 2: So we get the ad in the commercial, we get
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Speaker 2: the phone number. This is a big thing going back
12:29
Speaker 2: to even when I was younger seeing the movie Ghostbusters
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Speaker 2: when they put the number on the screen. I don't
12:35
Speaker 2: know if you had this experience where I would call
12:37
Speaker 2: the number, you know, the Ghostbusters number, and it was
12:40
Speaker 2: a real missed opportunity. I felt you'd get nothing. It
12:43
Speaker 2: wasn't like a working number, but I wanted that to be.
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Speaker 2: You know, it was a bummer that you're not like
12:48
Speaker 2: getting some kind of message or something like that. It
12:50
Speaker 2: sounds dumb, but there's kind of like a stupid glee
12:53
Speaker 2: you get when you're actually calling this number you see
12:56
Speaker 2: in an ad and then it brings it into the
12:58
Speaker 2: real world and then you're here Alf's voice. Yeah, it's
13:02
Speaker 2: like low hanging fruit, but man, it really makes a difference.
13:06
Speaker 2: So I like that extra Step. I like that they
13:08
Speaker 2: had the celebrities in there too. I agree with you.
13:10
Speaker 2: I feel like there's got to be more to come.
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Speaker 2: Because they have these people in there, they have them
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Speaker 2: record these messages. It feels like there should be like
13:17
Speaker 2: another piece to this coming later. I don't know if
13:20
Speaker 2: that's true, but it feels like there is more, you know,
13:23
Speaker 2: or there should be more because they put all this together.
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Speaker 2: And then from what you get from the messages where
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Speaker 2: they tell you, like, hey, leave a message for Hawkins,
13:31
Speaker 2: but whenever you leave, our marketing team can use it
13:33
Speaker 2: gives you the idea that you know, there's another piece
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Speaker 2: to this where they're they're going to go to take
13:38
Speaker 2: your messages, you know, the fan input. We're giving this
13:41
Speaker 2: to you, We want you to reach out to us,
13:43
Speaker 2: and then what you give us back, we're gonna kind
13:46
Speaker 2: of like spit back out there and do something else
13:48
Speaker 2: with it. So I like that there's kind of all
13:50
Speaker 2: these layers to it, and there's engagement to it. You're
13:54
Speaker 2: like actively participating in it, and you have these not one,
13:57
Speaker 2: not two, but three eighties aims to participate in it too,
14:01
Speaker 2: and they didn't forget about the product. They actually like
14:04
Speaker 2: have the packaging on the store shelves, which has a
14:07
Speaker 2: lot of If you look at the back of that
14:09
Speaker 2: Collisions bag, it's got like a whole like little story
14:13
Speaker 2: and like Stranger Things logo and animation gone there and
14:17
Speaker 2: stuff like that too. So they're really like putting this
14:19
Speaker 2: out there. It's not just like a half hearted effort,
14:22
Speaker 2: like you said.
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Speaker 1: And Dorito's is kind of known for they sort of
14:26
Speaker 1: embrace the absurdity sometimes, you know, and also engagement like
14:31
Speaker 1: that the Super Bowl ads.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, with the fans submitting the ads.
14:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's very brand consistent in that way. And
14:39
Speaker 1: I like that. I like that Dorito's didn't just give
14:42
Speaker 1: us this half ass effort. And I can't imagine they
14:45
Speaker 1: would have, because this is a pretty big collab, you know,
14:48
Speaker 1: like people have been anticipating this final season of Stranger Things.
14:53
Speaker 1: If they did, it would have been a missed opportunity
14:55
Speaker 1: for sure. And to your point, you know, like the
14:57
Speaker 1: call in number, they probably didn't have that ca capability
15:00
Speaker 1: back then, yeah, even though I mean.
15:03
Speaker 2: All you need is a phone number and an answer machine, right.
15:06
Speaker 1: But the logistics of that was probably way more complicated
15:09
Speaker 1: than any brand wanted to go through back then. Now,
15:12
Speaker 1: some twelve year old could set that up in their
15:14
Speaker 1: bedroom right now, you know. Yeah, So overall, i'd give
15:18
Speaker 1: it a big thumbs up.
15:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I think we're both on the pretty
15:21
Speaker 2: positive side. They did what Dorito's did, well, give it
15:25
Speaker 2: five crunches, superhuman, two thumbs up. However, you want a.
15:28
Speaker 1: Great listeners, We haven't done a Halloween episode or anything
15:33
Speaker 1: that's sort of the season in what two or three years,
15:37
Speaker 1: maybe it's been a while.
15:38
Speaker 2: I know we did a couple of them back in
15:40
Speaker 2: the day where we kind of go through some of
15:43
Speaker 2: the you know, hot holiday campaigns or ads for around
15:47
Speaker 2: Halloween time. We did one episode where we just talked
15:50
Speaker 2: about candy packaging. Is that what we did?
15:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think yeah, mm hmm.
15:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's a few of them if you go
15:55
Speaker 2: back through the archives, but we haven't it's been a
15:57
Speaker 2: couple of years.
15:58
Speaker 1: Yeah. So this year we thought, you know, because of
16:01
Speaker 1: this Dorito's which sort of inspired us to do this episode,
16:05
Speaker 1: we thought we'd each pick one other Halloween related ad
16:09
Speaker 1: or marketing effort this year that we thought stood out
16:12
Speaker 1: to us, and then you know, just talked a little
16:15
Speaker 1: bit about why we liked it or didn't like it
16:17
Speaker 1: or whatever. It will give you a little bit more
16:19
Speaker 1: to think about, you know, if you're thinking, Hey, you know,
16:21
Speaker 1: what are the good other good Halloween efforts out there?
16:24
Speaker 1: Not just Derito's. I don't even like Dorito's, right, maybe
16:27
Speaker 1: you're that person.
16:28
Speaker 2: I'm sick a stranger thing.
16:29
Speaker 1: Hey, stranger things, Derito's telethons, I don't like any of it. Well,
16:33
Speaker 1: maybe you'll like one of these that we point out.
16:35
Speaker 1: So would you pick out shad that you liked?
16:38
Speaker 2: I'm wondering if you shouldn't go first here, I've got two, okay,
16:42
Speaker 2: And because one of them, I'm like, is Patrick gonna
16:44
Speaker 2: pick this one? So then I grabbed another one just
16:46
Speaker 2: in case. I don't know if you're going to pick it,
16:48
Speaker 2: but I thought there was a chance you might because it's,
16:50
Speaker 2: you know, fairly recent and in the news.
16:54
Speaker 1: Okay, So my pick is the effort from M and M's.
16:59
Speaker 1: I picked another food brand.
17:01
Speaker 2: It's almost impossible not to pick a food brand.
17:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, at Halloween, for sure, it's candy. If you're not
17:08
Speaker 1: promoting yourself and you're candy at Halloween, there's something wrong.
17:12
Speaker 1: There's something wrong with you. But this Eminem's they've got
17:15
Speaker 1: a few of these It's more Fun together and they're
17:18
Speaker 1: more fun together campaign, but this one that I picked
17:22
Speaker 1: is horrific and delicious. I really like this where the
17:26
Speaker 1: Eminems are sitting on the couch and they're watching television.
17:30
Speaker 1: The one Eminem, the yellow guy who's kind of funny
17:33
Speaker 1: because he's kind of doofy, you know, he's, yeah, he's
17:36
Speaker 1: a dope. He's a dope. Yeah, and he's like, don't
17:38
Speaker 1: go in there, you know, And you wonder what they're
17:41
Speaker 1: talking about. And here someone's doing cooking show and they're
17:44
Speaker 1: blending the Eminem's into the cookie dough and that's their
17:47
Speaker 1: horror movie right that they're watching. It's quick. The whole
17:51
Speaker 1: series of these are fun in that way, but it
17:54
Speaker 1: nails this balance between spooky and fun. It also doesn't
17:58
Speaker 1: try too hard. This is what I think the candy
18:01
Speaker 1: brands really have to try to do, and I think
18:03
Speaker 1: Eminem's always does it really well. Is you don't want
18:05
Speaker 1: to scare away kids, right, you want to do something
18:08
Speaker 1: that's fun but also light spookiness that is sort of
18:13
Speaker 1: witty and has some humor in it. A couple other
18:16
Speaker 1: things I'll say about this one brand consistency which we
18:20
Speaker 1: talked about the Doritos. Like, that's what I love about
18:22
Speaker 1: the Eminem's is that uniformity across all of their efforts
18:27
Speaker 1: and then this connection that they make. You could call
18:30
Speaker 1: it an emotional connection if you want to, But they
18:33
Speaker 1: create these small moments of delight and surprise, whether it's
18:37
Speaker 1: part of the joke, you know, the punchline that they're
18:39
Speaker 1: using in that specific little spot. It's not meant to
18:42
Speaker 1: sell millions of candies overnight. It's just meant to sort
18:45
Speaker 1: of give you this emotional feeling. When you see Eminems,
18:48
Speaker 1: you feel connected to them in some way. Maybe that
18:50
Speaker 1: even ties back into brand consistency with the characters. Have
18:53
Speaker 1: you seen that one, the Horrific and Delicious?
18:56
Speaker 2: I did see that one, and that's a good one.
18:57
Speaker 2: That's very Eminem's, you know what I mean, Like totally
19:01
Speaker 2: fits with their tone. I think of like their Christmas
19:04
Speaker 2: commercials and stuff. It's very much in their wheelhouse, in
19:07
Speaker 2: their vibe. I like, you know, this commercial actually hits
19:11
Speaker 2: on this like vibe, which is kind of like this
19:14
Speaker 2: toy story idea that the M and ms can die
19:19
Speaker 2: and experience pain and sadness and like fear. Yeah, you know, yeah,
19:24
Speaker 2: and watching this is like watching you know, it's like
19:27
Speaker 2: for a human, watching a human get like mauled and
19:31
Speaker 2: ripped into pieces.
19:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yet we find humor in that, you know,
19:36
Speaker 1: because they're not human. There's a way for us to
19:39
Speaker 1: find some joy out of that, which is you know,
19:43
Speaker 1: maybe a little sick, you know, if you're really kind
19:45
Speaker 1: of looking at the psychology of it.
19:46
Speaker 2: But yeah, silly eminem worried about getting you know, ground
19:50
Speaker 2: up into tiny bits.
19:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then eaten later because you're a part
19:55
Speaker 1: of a cookie, you know.
19:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, that's a good one. Very much, very
19:59
Speaker 2: much on ran there. I'll tell you what I pick,
20:01
Speaker 2: which is also a candy. The reason I thought you
20:03
Speaker 2: might have picked it is because I think it just dropped,
20:05
Speaker 2: so it's very much recent. Top of the feed. But
20:10
Speaker 2: this one comes from gushers. Do you remember gushers? Oh yeah,
20:14
Speaker 2: you know you bite into these fruit things and this
20:16
Speaker 2: disgusting juice squirts into the back of your mouth. Yeah. Well,
20:20
Speaker 2: in the nineties they had this ad where people would
20:24
Speaker 2: eat a gusher and their heads would turn into fruit
20:27
Speaker 2: with some kind of disturbing looking special effects, or some
20:31
Speaker 2: people thought they were disturbing. Yeah, In response to online
20:34
Speaker 2: conversation about that ad from the nineties, which people still
20:37
Speaker 2: talk about, General Mills produced a new short film for Halloween.
20:42
Speaker 2: This film stars Bradley Whitford, fairly famous actor people might
20:46
Speaker 2: know him from Billy Madison's on the West Wing using
20:49
Speaker 2: get out a ton of credits if you like, look
20:51
Speaker 2: him up, and it's called fruit Head.
20:54
Speaker 1: Okay.
20:54
Speaker 2: So the idea here, these people have talked about being
20:57
Speaker 2: traumatized by the un potentially terrifying nineties ad. So this
21:02
Speaker 2: ad or short film as they call it, it's like
21:05
Speaker 2: six minutes long with credits, takes that terror and kind
21:08
Speaker 2: of runs with it. The premise, one actor from the
21:12
Speaker 2: nineties ad was cursed to live his life as a
21:15
Speaker 2: fruit head, like as he appeared in this you Know
21:18
Speaker 2: ad in the nineties. Now as an adult, he seeks
21:22
Speaker 2: revenge on the TV commercial director played by Bradley Whitford
21:27
Speaker 2: who made him this way and this you know film
21:30
Speaker 2: used a lot of like horror movie tropes. It's got
21:33
Speaker 2: the tone, it's got you know, it feels scary, even
21:37
Speaker 2: though it's kind of got its tongue in cheek the
21:39
Speaker 2: whole time. It has those disturbing visuals that people talked
21:43
Speaker 2: about online, so they're using that, and it also has
21:46
Speaker 2: kind of a classic twist the knife no horror movie
21:50
Speaker 2: type ending, so it's pretty good in that way. I
21:54
Speaker 2: like that they use, you know, what people were talking
21:57
Speaker 2: about online to kind of fuel this effort. They also
22:00
Speaker 2: constructed some good pseudo movie marketing around this. There's kind
22:04
Speaker 2: of like a blocky, almost clockwork orange like title font
22:08
Speaker 2: they used. They have some artwork for it with like
22:12
Speaker 2: a scary, dripping strawberry face with some like disturbing eyes
22:17
Speaker 2: looking out at this guy who's like tied up. They
22:19
Speaker 2: have the tagline revenge is a dish best served fruity,
22:25
Speaker 2: which you know, probably could have been workshopped a little,
22:27
Speaker 2: but it goes with what they're doing here. Yeah, So overall,
22:31
Speaker 2: I just really like the genesis of this idea. I
22:33
Speaker 2: like how it came about taking conversation online, which is
22:36
Speaker 2: someone say, skewing toward the negative on your brand or
22:40
Speaker 2: your marketing or what you've done in the past, and
22:43
Speaker 2: kind of playing with that a little bit in a
22:45
Speaker 2: fun way for Halloween. So that's what I enjoyed here.
22:47
Speaker 2: I think it's worth a watch. It's an interesting effort.
22:50
Speaker 2: Fruit Head from Gushers.
22:52
Speaker 1: The name reminds me of Pumpkinhead, which is a scary
22:55
Speaker 1: movie from the back of the day.
22:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, an eighties horror movie.
22:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. I didn't actually see this one prior, but it
23:02
Speaker 1: does look pretty good. You know what's funny is, do
23:05
Speaker 1: you remember back in the day when we first started
23:07
Speaker 1: this podcast, we talked about it a lot, this idea
23:10
Speaker 1: of entertainment and marketing together, you know, like.
23:13
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, like the merging of the two.
23:16
Speaker 1: And we were like, this is going to happen more
23:18
Speaker 1: and more and more, and we were talking about it,
23:20
Speaker 1: and I think we were really on the cutting edge.
23:23
Speaker 1: We were the first ones to say it and think
23:25
Speaker 1: it to the listeners. You know, if you don't know
23:27
Speaker 1: me by now, I'm being a little sarcastic, but.
23:28
Speaker 2: We're always ahead of the current.
23:30
Speaker 1: We're always the first ones who ever thought of the
23:33
Speaker 1: thing that we just said on the show. But you know,
23:36
Speaker 1: like this is what I kind of love about a
23:38
Speaker 1: lot of the brands, Like they're making these films. I'm
23:40
Speaker 1: seeing this all the time now, like every week there
23:43
Speaker 1: is this like a short film. Yeah, this short film,
23:46
Speaker 1: and like, man, that that was a huge effort for
23:50
Speaker 1: them to put that together. But what's so beautiful about
23:54
Speaker 1: marketing right now is that you know this is possible,
23:57
Speaker 1: This is actually possible, like for Gushers, General Mills right
24:02
Speaker 1: to put this film together that's well crafted. You feel
24:06
Speaker 1: like this is like like a little movie.
24:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it can live online and it can find
24:11
Speaker 2: an audience, you know, and you end up getting like
24:13
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of views, whereas before this wouldn't really
24:16
Speaker 2: have a place to exist.
24:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. And in some cases these are like really well written.
24:21
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know about this one because again
24:23
Speaker 1: I just saw it as we were kind of recording
24:25
Speaker 1: the show and stuff. But some of these brand films
24:27
Speaker 1: are like that. I like this one that you picked
24:29
Speaker 1: because it's way different than the one I pick, on
24:32
Speaker 1: the opposite ends of the spectrum with maybe a little
24:35
Speaker 1: bit of the visuals and also, you know, even length.
24:38
Speaker 1: The Eminem's one thing is like maybe thirty seconds.
24:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, yours is a quickie. This one you have to
24:43
Speaker 2: invest some time in yours. Is your six year old
24:45
Speaker 2: kid could watch it this one, they'd probably be a
24:47
Speaker 2: little disturbed by it.
24:49
Speaker 1: Like, Daddy, why did you show me that?
24:51
Speaker 2: I'm scared?
24:51
Speaker 1: I can't go to bed now.
24:53
Speaker 2: I'll never eat a gusher again. Yeah, I will throw
24:56
Speaker 2: out the other one. You know, I thought about talking
24:58
Speaker 2: about an honorable mention if you will. Fanta or the
25:02
Speaker 2: Coca Cola company had kind of did a collaboration with
25:06
Speaker 2: Universal and Blumhouse. So they had these ads and different
25:11
Speaker 2: cans with Chucky and Freddy Fas Bear and the Grabber
25:15
Speaker 2: and Michael Myers and math Reagan as I like to
25:18
Speaker 2: call her from the Megan movies, so different like packaging
25:21
Speaker 2: and promotions they were doing that. I thought. I thought
25:23
Speaker 2: that was pretty good too.
25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah. I saw the little spot that they created for that,
25:27
Speaker 1: and you know, the person was trying to get through
25:29
Speaker 1: the house. Somebody was chasing them or whatever.
25:32
Speaker 2: Are Yeah, they're just trying to drink a Fanta and
25:34
Speaker 2: all these you know, different horror movie killers or chasing
25:38
Speaker 2: after them trying to get their Fanta.
25:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chucky ultimately drinks the Fanta spoiler.
25:43
Speaker 2: Alert, Yeah, you did kind of ruin it.
25:47
Speaker 1: Why would you do that, Patrick? Why would you ruin
25:49
Speaker 1: it on the show? I haven't even watched it yet.
25:52
Speaker 2: We haven't heard from anybody who's gotten mad in the
25:54
Speaker 2: past about a spoiling an ad.
25:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've gotten some upset listeners from like movies, from
26:00
Speaker 1: movies and marketing. When we spoiled the ending to sixth cents,
26:05
Speaker 1: I think that was a big one, you know, because
26:07
Speaker 1: it was only twenty five years old at the time
26:09
Speaker 1: when we spoiled it. Anyway, here's the takeaway for today.
26:13
Speaker 1: What do we do with all this? What do we
26:15
Speaker 1: do with everything that we just talked about today? Listen,
26:17
Speaker 1: this is what I'm going to tell you, all right,
26:19
Speaker 1: Thirteen point one billion dollars is what's projected to be
26:23
Speaker 1: spent by consumers during Halloween this year. So Halloween, in
26:27
Speaker 1: my opinion, is where it's at beyond all the other
26:30
Speaker 1: holidays and season. I mean, Halloween does have a huge,
26:34
Speaker 1: huge opportunity for marketers. Add to that, you've got nostalgia,
26:38
Speaker 1: which is one of marketing's most powerful tricks if you
26:42
Speaker 1: want to call it a trick or a treat, but
26:44
Speaker 1: it only works if you do it with purpose. So
26:46
Speaker 1: the takeaway is just remember, if you want people to
26:49
Speaker 1: engage with your brand, you've got to invite them into
26:52
Speaker 1: the fun, you know, like the nostalgic fun that Dorito's created. Yeah,
26:55
Speaker 1: it's ultimately about selling chips, but it's also about giving
26:59
Speaker 1: people a moment of joy, which is what they're all doing,
27:02
Speaker 1: bringing joy into that moment, and that's what it's all about.
27:05
Speaker 1: So try that if you're a brand or a marketer
27:08
Speaker 1: or a business that we might take away. What do
27:11
Speaker 1: you think.
27:11
Speaker 2: I think that's a good one. You know, I've always
27:13
Speaker 2: liked Halloween. I think that gives you in marketing the
27:16
Speaker 2: opportunity to go to just some really creative and weird
27:19
Speaker 2: places that you can't really do necessarily the other times
27:23
Speaker 2: of the year, And especially for some specific brands, it's
27:26
Speaker 2: pretty perfect to just try some things that you haven't
27:29
Speaker 2: done or you know, aren't really able to do other
27:33
Speaker 2: times of the year.
27:34
Speaker 1: Once you're talking about what was the one the it
27:37
Speaker 1: wasn't it like a holiday like Christmas type of holiday?
27:41
Speaker 1: Ad from Ikia where the dad or the fat the
27:44
Speaker 1: grandfather died, right, And.
27:46
Speaker 2: That was not Ikia, that was I think it was Adco.
27:49
Speaker 2: It was like a grocery or like a grocery store
27:52
Speaker 2: in another country. But yeah, the guy was pretending to
27:55
Speaker 2: be dead to get his family together. You could turn
27:58
Speaker 2: that into a Halloween if you wanted to. There's a
28:01
Speaker 2: you could Tim Burton version of that.
28:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. No, I think that's a great point.
28:07
Speaker 1: And Halloween be creative. I think we've said that before
28:10
Speaker 1: on the Halloween episodes.
28:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's my favorite of the holidays, marketing wise
28:15
Speaker 2: and otherwise.
28:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, let us know what your favorite Halloween
28:20
Speaker 1: ad or marketing effort is this year. You know, you
28:22
Speaker 1: can feel free to reach out feedback at speaking human
28:25
Speaker 1: dot com. But that's it for today's episode. You can
28:29
Speaker 1: find current and past episodes of the podcast on speakinghuman
28:33
Speaker 1: dot com.
28:34
Speaker 2: We'll be back in two weeks with another episode of
28:38
Speaker 2: Speaking Human. Catch it in Humans, Speaking Human