By Lindsey Campbell, Captains of Industry
Hey Captains’ readers,
Here’s your Monday Deal:
1. The land down under
When you’re a lady, your underwear drawer matches your priorities. Your panty range is probably pretty vast when you’re a young woman—bright colors, patterns, ties, ribbons, whatever. But as some ladies get older, they tend to forego the lacy numbers for something more…shall we say “practical.” In other words, some gals have gotten stuck in a panty rut—a wedgie of sorts, if you will. But fortunately for you, and your lady parts, Kotex is hosting a panty raid. That’s right, Kotex is asking women everywhere to submit a video that goes over the highs and lows of their underwear drawers. A panel of judges will choose 10 finalists who will have to explain why they deserve a “makeunder,” and three lucky ladies will be chosen for an undergarment overhaul.
Why is Kotex going through women’s underwear drawers? Because they want their target market to know that they can wear pretty underwear no matter what time of the month. As a fellow female and a marketer, I think the idea has merit. Even though most girls wouldn’t dare wear fancy roos on her off-season week, it’s still cool that Kotex is exposing feminine conundrums rather than keeping it hush-hush. I don’t know if I’d be emotionally secure enough to show the world my delicates, but I’ll definitely tune in to check out what other ladies are packin’.
Hopefully that doesn’t make me some kind of pervert.
2. The baby carrot debacle
When it comes to eating your veggies, I get an A+. In fact, I’d say that at least ¼ of my income goes to leafy greens and crunchy legumes. I can’t help it—I just love me some produce. Which leads to my recent baby carrot conundrum. I just read on David Kiefaber’s recent post on AdFreak that Crispin Porter has taken on the challenge of making carrots cool to the youth market. In fact, the carrot industry is backing this project with 25 million dollars. So far, CP has come up with a range of ideas, including packaging baby carrots to look like junk food.
Now, wait a second. I get a lot of flack here at the office about my healthy food choices. I see the way my fellow Captains look at me when I offer them a sliced pepper or a sugar snap pea. And I hear the hushed whispers as I happily chomp on my celery sticks and various other root vegetables. But I persevere, and I do so with dignity. So why the heck should kids get to hide behind well-designed packaging? Although I applaud promoting healthy eating, I think we rabbit/human hybrids should be proud to eat baby carrots instead of masquerading them to be nature’s cheese doodles.
Is anyone else passionate about produce?
I’m going to go with “no,” but it’s worth a shot.
3. Staying mum
Are there times when advertisers should just shut up? According to Brian Thompson of Ask a Copywriter, Shell’s new campaign that focuses on “delivering better energy solutions” might cause a mass riot due to the timing with the BP oil spill and all of its various ecological, economical and political aftermath. The transit posters are copy-driven and use headlines like “Let’s build a better energy future. Let’s go” and “Decisions, decisions. Let’s make some. Let’s go.”
Although I like that Shell is making an attempt to acknowledge that SOMETHING needs to be done about our current energy usage and resources, I can see why the campaign might irk those who’ve been championing clean energy all along or who’ve been affected by an oil spill. The headline “We have the technology. Let’s go,” makes me wonder why the company hasn’t pressed the issue of clean energy BEFORE the oil spill. And “Let’s make what we’ve got go further. Let’s go,” feels contradictory to the other headlines’ clean-energy focused messages. However, I think that the attempt to inspire change is there, and if big oil wants to start talking about ways to ensure a green energy future, I’m sure they’ll be a lot of people who’d like to listen.
Until tomorrow,
Captain Lindsey
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