Friday, October 16, 2009

Two Slogans: One I Like, One I Don’t

A long time ago I lived in Maseru, Lesotho, and there was this fabulous restaurant we’d go to for celebrations called Fat Alice. I particularly remember the restaurant’s creamy hummus garnished with kalamata olives, crunchy wee pickles, and smoked paprika, not the least because my parents would reserve the olives and pickles for me and my brother. Anyway, we always left there stuffed and happy. Before we returned to Canada, Fat Alice made us a gift of their poster, which we framed. As you can see from the pictures, the restaurant’s slogan was “Fat Alice’s Restaurant: Nobody leaves here thin.”

I love it for its boldness and sense of humour. It would have been awful if it had been paired with a shmarmy image, but it wasn’t—the picture is romantic, soft,  and playfully suggestive.

Now on the other hand, I reacted negatively to Coke’s 2009 slogan: Open Happiness.

I don’t enjoy the contrived nostalgia, the nod to a “simpler” time (perhaps the 1950s). I don’t like the equation of drinking cola to happiness. I feel like they’re trying to con me in an arch sort of way. But I’m not the target audience.

Thoughts?

The problem I have with Open Happiness is that it implies that without opening the Coke, there is no happiness - that Coke represents happiness.

That certainly doesn’t pass the sniff test.

But again, I think neither of us is the target audience.

Your reaction is my reaction.

as a guy who drinks soda - i can attest to the genius of this slogan on the global stage. the north american market for coke is actually the smallest market. in africa alone, coke is seen as a saviour. coke has always played on its nostalgia and, with a few exceptions, has remained true to its brand design since the late
1800s. http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/8676/4586.jpg
all of their marketing has been fun, playful and whimsical just so it can anchor this “happiness” claim. so it makes sense. i guess they decided to focus on selling the ideal image of what coke stands for, rather than a overly sweet, brown, fizzy sludge.

my 2 cents. now where’s my bottle of happiness, i left it here somewhere?

I like your two cents, Aires. It fills in the gap left by my not being the target audience and not taking the time to think about who that audience is. And you’re right, whenever I’ve travelled to poorer regions of the world, Coke is ubiquitous and far more symbolic than it is here anymore.