The Financial Express, September 08, 2008

That ‘mad-as-hell’ feeling

In the age of $5-a-gallon gas, $15 baggage fees on airlines and toxic tomatoes, plenty of people probably feel ready to stick their head out the window and yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Fortunately, Madison Avenue understands.

Thirty-two years after the indignant news anchor played by Peter Finch in the movie Network shouted his way into the Fed-up Hall of Fame, advertisers are trying to capture the spirit of his outrage in campaigns that reflect and capitalise on the frustrated mood of the American consumer.

Here are some examples:

* Southwest Airlines is attacking the fees that rival airlines charge their customers.

* Harley-Davidson is proclaiming that “freedom and wind outlast hard times.”

* Eastman Kodak is telling printer owners that “pricey ink stinks” and camera owners that it will “take a stand” against anyone that wants to “treat people’s most precious images as if they were nothing more than file formats.”

Consumers “are very serious about what’s going on,” said Gary M Stibel, chief executive at the New England Consulting Group in Westport, which recently started a practice devoted to pricing and profit in a recession.

Stibel said marketers were finding that consumers would pay attention to “common-sense, direct approaches, not ads that are silly or gimmicky.”

He praised the Southwest campaign for tapping into the sentiment of consumers “without stepping over the line by insulting the loyal customers” of its competitors. The campaign, by GSD&M Idea City in Austin, Texas, carries the theme “Fees don’t fly with us”.

A chart in a print ad shows how fares are lower on fee-free Southwest than on other airlines. “What have they been smoking?” the headline asks, referring to the rivals. “Apparently, your rolled-up $20s.” The goal was “to do something disruptive” that reflects the frustrations of fliers, said Derek Pletch, vice-president and group creative director at Idea City, part of Omnicom.

The campaign has an edge to it, Pletch acknowledged, but it also has “an empathetic tone that tells them, ‘We understand what you’re going through’.”

That edge is also visible in the campaign for Harley-Davidson, which is created by Carmichael Lynch, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. “We don’t do fear,” asserts a headline on a print ad, which is laid out to resemble the American flag.

“Over the last 105 years in the saddle, we’ve seen wars, conflicts, depression, recession, resistance and revolutions,” the ad begins, referring to the founding of Harley-Davidson: “We’ve watched a thousand hand-wringing pundits disappear in our rear-view mirror.”

“But every time, this country has come out stronger than before,” the ad says, before concluding that the right response to the national mood ought to be, “Let’s ride.”

However, some advertisers that seek to address the national mood are delivering pitches in a less intense, more whimsical manner than marketers like Southwest or Harley-Davidson.

For instance, a campaign for Absolut vodka, which carries the theme “In an Absolut world”, seems as mad as the anchor Howard Beale in Network.

“Absolut is different in that we’re about presenting a more idealised world,” said Tim Murphy, vice-president for marketing at the Absolut Spirits. “The brand stands for sociability, celebration,” he added, so the campaign is “meant to be a more positive light, not in a way that’s confrontational or negative or disparaging anyone else.”