Let's Talk About Ads

Milk: Where's Your Mustache?

I was listening to LAUNCHcast radio. I really like the ability to customize my music, and Launch is about as close as I'm going to get to having all my music with me.

In between all my good music, I have to listen to the commercials that Launch occassionally puts on for people like me (i.e. a college student who can't pay for a subscription). I heard one this morning that just made me say, "What the fuck?" This was inside my head, of course, because I'm sure my boss wouldn't appreciate that.

Because it was the radio, it just had one person telling the audience something. This is what he said:

They say it truly exists so we seek it out, we seek for this miracle food with 9 amino acids. The local seers - we call it: the egg.

And then came the tagline:
The incredible, edible egg. Nature's miracle food.

Learn more at the american egg board.com

Okay, who were the copywriters who came up with that one? Incredible, edible egg? Nature's MIRACLE food? Really, it just sounds like someone was trying too hard to come up with a slogan. It may sound cute in print, but all the hyperbole does is make people laugh while shaking their heads in disbelief. There's no way I'm going to believe that an egg is nature's miracle food.

I understand that it's hard to get people excited about an inexciting commodity like an egg. I think before they can do thaty, they must first understand what makes the egg so much better than other products out there (and no, being edible doesn't count). Of all the generic food products, I think the only really successful campaign was the one done for milk. Because I had them continuously telling me how milk does my body good while I was growing up, I simply cannot believe that people used to drink more SODA for breakfast than they did milk. I can't imagine drinking soda for breakfast. Also, the milk mustache campaign was extremely successful. I think one of the signs of a good campaign is one that can be parodied and still cause people to think about the product.

And I just noticed that it's really the American Egg Board (AEB) dot ORG. I'm pretty certain the commercial said dot com. I'll have to listen to it again next week while at work to make sure.

I'm sorry egg. You're going to have to try harder.

posted by Sarah @ 7:09 PM