Nestlé strips down for "natural" Coffee-Mate

I'll give Nestlé credit; this ad for "natural" Coffee-Mate creamer is getting tons of earned media. And it would need to, since the Coffee-Mate brand has long stood for "non-dairy creamer."

So, to show people that this new product has real dairy in it, they body-painted "nude" baristas (and a few customers) in a coffee shop in what looks to be an experiential stunt:

"Boobs," get it? Natural dairy. Ha ha. But at least they involved men as well in this gag. They even made a point of sexually objectifying the guy more bluntly, although this is hardly progressive.

It's not that bold of an idea, though. Topless coffee bars were a fad out west a few years ago, and public nude body painting stunts go back decades.

But then again, advertising ain't art. It's about getting attention and triggering recall. This ad achieves the former, and might achieve the latter if people can forget a lifetime of associations between Coffee-Mate and unnatural coffee whiteners.

It's also a very American brand ad, which takes full advantage of that country's weird relationship with nudity. As many celebrities' Instagram drama has shown, nude buttocks are perfectly acceptable to the American general public, while women's nipples are not. Take a closer look at the video, and you'll note that not only are the "nude" actors wearing thongs, but the women are oddly nipple-less while the men are not.

It's the same thing that you see on TV, with shows like Naked and Afraid — lots of tease with nude bodies from the rear, with all genitals and female nipples blurred out. Considering all of the real nudity on the internet, this PG sexuality is simultaneously exploitative and bland. In other words, not really "natural" at all.

Via Eater. Thanks to JVL for the tip.

Hot Pockets and the Mayor of Newark, NJ, show how to win at social media

If you don't follow Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, on Twitter, you may want to start. In addition to being a Rhodes Scholar, the man absolutely rocks the medium of 140 characters or less.

For example, Time reports:

There’s barely been a disaster, natural or otherwise, that Booker hasn’t responded to personally, often via his very active Twitter account. After Hurricane Sandy struck, hundreds of Newark residents sent pleas for help to their mayor — and many of them got a speedy response.
...
Booker also used Twitter to get the home addresses of families in need, answer questions about local schools and even respond to his critics. According to the Gothamist, Booker averaged 100 tweets per day from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.

The interaction above was one of many. But it was a weird one, using language (and a user name) that make the guilty white guy in me twitch, and sent by someone who was probably attempting to troll Mayor Booker for shits and giggles.

He actually Tweeted at the Mayor twice:

What does he do? He responds in an amusingly patronizing way, with teacher language of which child expert Barbara Coloroso would approve. It was a beautifully executed response. And that might have been that.

But it's rare that a consumer brand gets mentioned by a major public figure without that brand's owners hearing about it — either through online "listening" tools, or secondhand from fans.

Nestlé, owner of the Hot Pockets brand, saw the interaction and sent the Mayor this letter:

Which the Mayor then Tweeted:

And then he told Tyree Humes:

So, Hot Pockets get a Mayoral endorsement. The Mayor gets to look cool in front of everyone.

I'm not a huge fan of Nestlé as a brand, or of this kind of junk food, but professionally speaking I am now a huge fan of the anonymous person or people at the company who pulled this off.

And the Mayor? Buzzfeed followed the aftermath, and caught Mayor Booker slaying a political troll with kindness and humour:

Via Buzzfeed

And hopefully Tyree Humes is enjoying his 15 Minutes of Fame:

Stealing faces for ads in the pre-Facebook era

There was a lot of kerfuffle earlier this year about the prospect of facebook advertisers stealing your profile picture for "sponsored stories" ads.  But according to a new Cracked article, it's nothing new.

6 People Who Had No Clue Their Faces Were World-Famous mentions the famous cases of the unaware models for such iconic images as Rosie The Riveter, the Woodstock couple in the blanket, and the revolutionary screaming man. It's worth a read.

But there was one that was a complete surprise to me: The Taster's Choice Guy.


Turns out the bad-coffee-huffer is a kindergarten teacher (and former model) named Russell Christoff, who had posed for an aborted Taster's Choice shoot in Canada in 1986, was given his $250 session fee, and sent on his way to marketing obscurity. Or so he thought.

Because Russell is not really an instant coffee drinker (I feel so betrayed!), he didn't notice that someone in the US marketing department had later "borrowed" his image without paying residuals until 2002.

What followed was a lengthy legal battle in which he first demanded and won $15.6 Million in 2005, which was later overturned on appeal. Nestlé offered him a $10,000 buyout, and he demanded $8.5 million. They turned him down again.

Now they have a new guy.

STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!

The moral of the story? Don't steal anyone's image. Unless you are a major corporation, in which case go for it!

Obama's misplaced product placement

The Telegraph reports U.S. President Obama's (presumably unpaid) product placement for Buxton mineral water at the G20:

Buxton was treated to the world's most coveted endorsement when the US President, who was answering questions with Mr Brown at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, turned down his hosts' offer of a glass.

Displaying the cool demeanour for which he has become renowned, Mr Obama took several leisurely sips from the bottle, displaying its logo to viewers watching the event around the world.

I assume this was done because of security concerns, or else the stubborn independence Obama is known for, but it raises some questions:

1) Although a British brand, Buxton is owned by Nestlé, a Swiss company. Why this brand? Because it was locally-sourced? (He could always claim the 100-mile diet as a fallback.) And why not remove the label?

2) Bottled water? In 2009? David Suzuki will give Obama a talking to next time he's in Canada. Or was his blatant waste of petrochemical products a show of confidence in our ability to develop new recycling technology or find new reserves?

This isn't an Obama bash, BTW. I like him as much as the next leftie. Regardless, the endorsement has Nestlé positively swimming with delight, and will no doubt inspire complaints/lobbying back home from major domestic brands.

Who knows? This could be a whole new revenue stream for Americans to start paying off their massive debts. Perhaps in the future we'll see Presidents dressed head-to-toe in logos, like NASCAR drivers. That would be cool.