BBQ joint ad mocks vegetarians and mental health campaigns

This campaign for Red’s True BBQ, a carnivorous join in Leeds and Manchester, UK, is trying to be funny. I get that.

Oppositional meat-loving is well known, from the classic "Plenty of room for all God's creatures" ad for the Saskatoon steakhouse, to passive-aggressive notes on campus billboards.

But it's not vegetarians who are outraged at this one. It's mental health advocates.

From the Leeds Student Newspaper:

Responding to the outcry on social media, the restaurant has posted a blog apologising for mocking vegetarianism, stating that they are “currently liaising with media owners to update the billboard”. However, there is no apology for mocking mental illness or domestic abuse charities. 

According to Mind, one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. The most common form of mental illness is mixed anxiety and depression, which affects about one in ten. Refuge, a charity that deals with domestic abuse, says that two women each week are killed from domestic violence. 

But these facts probably never occurred to Red’s True BBQ.

Probably not. Brands as big as McDonald's have made similar mistakes, assuming that it was OK to lampoon mental health PSA clichés to sell stuff.

It's not. At least, not anymore.

It should be noted that Red's BBQ has offered the standard non-apology — but only to "offended" vegetarians.

Making fun of people's life choices seems like fair game to me. It should be noted that Red's BBQ has offered the standard non-apology — but only to "offended" vegetarians.

Making fun of people's life choices seems like fair game to me. Mocking who they are, however, in my opinion is not.

Let's Talk about Buyral Marketing #BellLetsTalk

Bell Canada has declared today (Feb 12) as "Bell Let's Talk Day." It's a corporate responsibility outreach that encourages Canadians to Tweet share messages to raise awareness of mental health issues. Furthermore, they're donating 5¢ " help fund mental health initiatives across Canada" for every text or long distance call made on their network, as well as for every sharer of their campaign images on Facebook, or Tweet of their hashtag #BellLetsTalk.

Great, eh? Well...

As I wrote earlier on Osocio, I have an issue with campaigns like this. Not about the issue, which is important and very close to home. It's the underlying strategy, something I call "Buyral Marketing."

I made up the term to describe the kind of social media campaign in which a major brand attaches itself to a popular cause, creates branded content, and provides an incentive — in the form of a small donation to that cause.

As an adman, I can't deny that the strategy can be extremely successful. My Facebook feed is full of Bell's facts about mental health, shared by good people who want to do something to help. Their ticker is almost at 10 million shares.

But you know what? Most of these people would share campaign material like this anyway. Bell isn't paying people (through a donation) to share facts about mental health. People on social media have shown that they can be motivated to share a feel-good campaign with very little incentive beyond a desire to belong to something good. It's paying them to overlook the fact that they are sharing branded advertising for a for-profit corporation.

Consumers aren't stupid. Many of my friends are fully aware of the ulterior corporate motives involved, and choose to participate anyway. Social media movements like Condescending Corporate Brand Page make it hard to let yourself believe that Bell is in this for anyone but themselves.

But I hope brands engaging in Buyral Marketing are aware that this tactic has its limits. The cynicism will grow, a little, each time consumers are asked to work for a brand's CSR department. 

Don't get me wrong. "Let's Talk" is great branding, highlighting the natural association between a telecommunications company and the need for a public conversation about mental health. Perhaps next year Bell will take a higher road, committing those nickels to the cause without requiring shares (or use of their paid products!) to do so, simply because their message is highly sharable on its own merits.

Chick-fil-A's "fruitcake" gaffe may not be what it seems

This Chick-fil-A flier, which made the viral rounds last week as further proof of the brand's anti-gay stance, may not be what it seems.

Oh, it's real. But there's context:

"This is an advertisement that a locally owned and operated restaurant has been using for the past five years to promote Chick-fil-A's catering options during the holidays," Steve Robinson, the company's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement to The Advocate Tuesday afternoon. "It was simply a play on words referring to the traditional holiday food, and the restaurant had no intention of offending anyone whatsoever. We regret the flier may have been taken out of context."

The problem is that slang terms change over time. Wikipedia gives an origin for the term "nutty as a fruitcake" dating to 1910, and meaning simply "crazy," but notes that "fruit" and "fruitcake" were used as slanders against gay men by the 1930s. Since homosexuality was seen as a mental illness at the time, the shift isn't that surprising.

While I have heard both "fruitcake" and "fruit" used to mean gay men in my own lifetime, I have probably heard "fruitcake" used more often as a synonym for "crazy." Perhaps it depends where you live.

As much as I despise Chick-fil-A's CEO's anti-gay statements, I don't see this as evidence of the brand's association with homophobia.

It's just insulting to mentally ill people.

F'd Ad Fridays: The suicide hotline site that seems to want you to do it

There's nothing funny about depression and self-harm. Nothing, that is, except the official web site of the United States' National Suicide Hotlines.

This was featured today on Cracked's list of 5 Official Websites You Won't Believe Are This Bad. Most were just poorly designed. This one, well...

It is very, very strange. And amazingly dark and depressing, considering people visiting it must be a heartbeat away from their last hope.

It also has well-meaning, but tragically misplaced, rhetorical questions throughout it.

Who on earth was responsible for approving this design and content? I won't ask "who designed it?" because if there's one thing the internet has taught us is that human weirdness is deeper and more diverse than any individual could ever fathom.

Believe me. I do not want to make fun of a suicide hotline. But maybe if a little constructive mockery can get through to the right people and get them to do something... anything... to put this site out of its...

You see what this site has done to me? I did not want to make that joke. 

No! Make it stop!!! I take it all back. This site does not look like it was designed by a teenage girl in 1996. It is a sensitive and appropriate handling of a very delicate topic that it no way should provoke ironic thoughts from cynical bloggers. Okay?

GAHHHH!

I thought I just did. Although I'd love to know where I could get one of those cool vintage phones.

In defence of slacktivism

Today, my colleagues and I are wearing purple. It's part of a local day of awareness for mental illness called "Purple Pledge Day". (You can read all about it on the Acart Blog, and see all our pictures at the Acart Facebook Page).

The call went out last week to put on purple to remember the tragic suicide of Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson’s 14-year-daughter, Daron, as well as all other victims of mental illness.

Another day, another colour, another way to feel good about yourself for doing next to nothing, right?

Well, no.

While slacktivism is often criticized as ineffective in creating meaningful change, awareness can make a difference. Mashable has a great article about why the term itself is the worst thing about these micro-movements:

“It irritates me that we have invented this term as a pejorative way to describe what should be viewed as the first steps to being involved in a cause in 2010,” said Katya Andresen, Chief Operating Officer of Network for Good. “Let’s not whine that people want to do easy things that make them feel they’ve somehow made a difference. It’s okay if someone’s initial commitment is modest -– and it’s truly an opportunity that it’s easier than ever to spread information, create new initiatives for social good, and take action.”

“What the world needs now is far more engagement by individual citizens, not less, and simple steps such as signing petitions or even sharing opinions/tweeting are steps in the right direction,” said Randy Paynter, CEO and Founder of Care2. “As Edmund Burke once said, ‘Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.’ Because small steps can lead to bigger steps, being critical of small steps serves no good. It simply disenfranchises folks.”

We are overwhelmed with things to think and care about these days. Giving important social issues their own day, with a simple action that jogs the memory and incites conversation, is actually quite useful.

This is especially important for the issue of mental illness, because there is still so much stigma attached to physical diseases and conditions that express themselves through changes to mood and personality. The mental world is very much an undiscovered country for all but a few researchers, and things that happen in our heads carry the mythological fear of the unknown.

However, it not an issue that anyone can ignore. One source estimates that one in five people in Ontario will experience a mental illness at some point in his or her lifetime. (Having worked in advertising for 20 years, I am not joking when I say that I am convinced that way more than 20% of us are mentally ill — whether diagnosed or not!)

So it matters that we're talking a little more about mental illness today, and that we were able to take some small action to feel a tiny bit more personal involvement in, and control over, a seemingly overwhelming issue.

If you'd like to do even more, you can donate to the Daron Richardson Fund through the Sens Foundation or the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health

Bad news for used car salesmen?

The Burger King is selling his burgers so cheap, you'll think he has serious mental health issues:



At least, that's the premise of this recent addition to agency CP+B's weird "King" series of commercials that have re-energized the BK brand by appealing to a narrower demographic of young men who grew up on "Jackass'.

The "crazy" King is par for the course on this campaign, in which a bizarro version of the restaurant's mascot stalks patrons and does all kinds of un-Ronald-like things. But the total focus on how "crazy" he is acting in this spot has upset two leading American mental health organizations.

The Seattle Times reports that the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America have both spoken out against the nature of the ad.

"I was stunned. Absolutely stunned and appalled," said Michael Fitzpatrick, executive director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness[...]

He called the ad "blatantly offensive" and hopelessly retrograde in its depiction of mental illness, adding that the commercial could lead to further stigmatization, the primary barrier for individuals to seek out treatment.

"We understand edgy," Fitzpatrick said. "But this is beyond edgy. Way beyond."

Considering the ongoing struggle for people mental illness to be treated with the same respect as the physically ill, I think he has a point. But I wonder if this new sensibility will signal the end of an era for how used car dealers market their wares...