Woolworths campaign aligned brand ‘too closely’ with Anzac Day to succeed say experts
Marketing experts have said Woolworths ‘Fresh in our memories’ campaign generated such a huge public backlash because it aligned its brand far too closely to the memories of Anzac war heroes.
Today Carrspace, the experiential agency behind the campaign, has gone to ground referring all requests for comment to Woolworths and removing all links to the brand and Camp Gallipoli project from its website.
The supermarket has faced a barrage of criticism after it released the campaign on social media and was forced to pull down the campaign website after intervention by the Australian Government.
It was derided on social media as Woolworths faced accusations that it was exploiting Gallipoli and Anzac Day for commercial gain. Under the slogan ‘Fresh in our memories’ – a reference to its “Fresh food people” tagline – the campaign invited people to generate memories with the words ‘Lest we forget’ and the Woolworths logo underneath.
A perfect example of UN-SOCIAL MEDIA.
3-5 years to recover?? More like 3-5 days. How quickly people forget these instant controversies is underestimated.
Why do companies who get things wrong only “regret” it? That’s the CEO trying to hide! Why not apologise for getting it wrong! Apologies are not too much to ask. Mealy mouthed PR i.e “regrets” just don’t wash.
The difference between the Woolworth campaign and VB for example, is the agency involved sought permission from the RSL to have an ANZAC association on their ad. It’s something that anyone with any experience in an agency knows. It’s not up to Woolworths to know this, it’s up to the agency. It’s like an agency informing a car client they can’t have a speeding car in their TV ad. It very basic stuff. If Carrspace had asked permission in the first place from the RSL, they would have been knocked back for sure.
They obviously didn’t. Beside that, as a creative director I’d have knocked this idea back straight away as bad taste. If I were the Woolworth client, I’d fire them straight away.
IMHO the issue is with the brand in question inserting their brand tag line into the ANZAC message. The use of “Fresh…” takes the reader away from the national tragedy and puts the brand as the focus. THIS is the problem.
I could have told them this campaign would fail. People are over Gallipoli and anzacs as demonstrated by the failure of Nine’s mini series, we are suffering commemoration fatigue. Any other companies or TV shows thinking about hopping on the Centenary bandwagon will be throwing money down the drain.
So @Carrspace shut down their Twitter account and pages on their website. Twitter back up now, while Woolworths execs mull over their 3-year deal. Time to change the name guys. [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
I was going into Woolies at Westfield Burwood today. At the front of the store there was a large sandwich board with the close-up of the Digger’s face on it and “Lest We Forget”, but with no “Fresh” slogan. As we watched, a staff member came out and turned the sandwich board around, so that the Digger’s face was to the wall and the blank reverse faced outward.
Obviously management had got cold feet about the whole idea Anzac idea, but this seemed to be going a bit far.
They were still selling commemorative badges at the checkout, though.
Keep rolling in the lolz Woolies…
this is an awful blunder by woolies & carr, but i found the proliferation of photoshop “memes” in the immediate aftermath distasteful as well.
people excoriating woolies for disrespecting the anzacs mostly expressed themselves by disrespecting the anzacs – not cool. i saw one image with a picture of hitler and the macro “lest we forget” which imo is much worse than woolworths’ mistake, albeit by some amatuer hack rather than a huge recognisable brand.
As this has now made the lead story on smh.com.au…
http://www.smh.com.au/business.....ml8md.html
…there’s one reader comment that really sums it all up…
“If you look at the Carrspace totes amazeballs creative team you’ll note that there wasn’t a reality-checking baby boomer in there to say ‘hang on a minute…’
Just another reason why we need all generations in the workplace.
Commenter: Ian / Location:Sydney / Date and time: April 15, 2015, 12:58PM
With this and Louie, Mr Oliver gets it right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_7xur1iRc
Proof how Americanised this country has become. Woolworths’s utter disrespest in the chase of the holy dollar. VB beer (CUB) started using ANZAC in their advertising a few years back, they justify it by their association with the RSL and Legacy. In other words, our support comes at a price. Just another company run by upstarts who would have no idea of decency. For the record I stopped drinking VB and will no longer shop at Woolworths. An utter disgrace.
Check out the iconic Manly Wharf Hotel and you’ll see they have huge billboards posted out the front promoting an Anzac Day DJ party, with the same Digger likeness dominating the creative.
A good enough example of unsocial media.
The hype around ANZAC Day has mushroomed in the past decade… with two ever-present dangers as a result. The first is a sugar-coating and dumbing-down of complex history into simplistic, stereotyped narratives (check out pretty well anything on this subject on commercial television at the moment). The second is things like this – dumbass agencies diving snouts-first into the trough of hype and blowing it badly. Ordinarily, I’d laugh… but this just leaves a nasty, bitter taste all round.
What happens when you don’t consult with your PR team
There is dual responsibility here and the campaign looks like the result of a classic creative-client struggle. One brings a creative concept, the other says ‘great, but where’s the branding?’
The fact that they went so far over the line then seems to demonstrate a lack of persuasive, strategic counsel to the client and/or no playbook planning to test the idea by working through the worst case scenarios.
Lesson learned? We’ll see!
http://www.theshovel.com.au/20.....epartment/
Guys spare a thought for all that unloved “earned media” so tragically gone to waste.
I bet you $29.50 that someone will claim it on their cv in the future after all the furore dies down – “was responsible for a campaign with over a million dollars in earned media”
I’m betting there are a lot of people at Woolies who will forever remember Anzac 2015 with the phrase “Best we Forget”
The agency seems to be taking a beating but I wonder who signed this off. Surely they did not approve it without the clients sign-off.