Oh my, a handbook case of how you don't seed a brand on the web is Cillit Bangs latest gaffe. Tom Coates at plasticbag.org tells about the crass commercial message he received as comment spam to a heartfelt post he made about his feelings for his estranged father here: Cillit Bang and a new low for marketers.
Barry Scott, the cillit bang guy in the UK chirped in with a comment, just to be able to link his weblog, barryscott.blogs.com. How tacky. (I wonder if the Danish cillit bang guy, Jakob Holm has a blog as well).
Tom tracks the comment spam, via Y&R's IP number, through to JWT and then to Reckitt Benckiser, and he rings them up asking what the hell they're doing. You should go and read the whole story. The Cillit Bang marketing team have since apologised, but as I always say "Don't be sorry, just don't do it in the first place!"
This is such a shame, as Cillit Bang already had the coveted cult reputation, thanks to its silly name, the over the top ad, the Cillit Bang, the hardcore cleaning sensation eurotrash techno remix which is brilliant, and finally the ad ban!. You don't mess with this sort of success people!
(and yes, it is funny that this post comes straight after is Buzz illegal? IMHO)
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For even more Cillity goodness, take a look at an ad for Easy-Off Bam , which appears to be the pert'near word-for-word U.S. clone of this cleaner (either that or it's the world's most blatant case of commercial theft), and of course, there's also an American wannabee rival product, Kaboom , with no less a spokesman than the great shouter Billy Mays himself. (Video links work for superadgrunts only)
So when is somebody going to do a club remix of the US versions?
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PermalinkOH MY GOD BILLY; WE CAN HEAR YOU; STOP SHOUTIING!
That woudl make a great techno-remix, it already has the cheesy guitar!
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PermalinkOh yeah, checking "barry scott" at Technorati we find that he is indeed rather hated foor that stunt. Do'h!
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PermalinkOh dear, they got a little bit more attention than they expected didn't they? This reminds me of that Ogilvy "bullshit marketing" thing that happened back in Feb - summary here at Bj
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