what’s in your pants?
I hear a great variety of the local radio stations as I walk around the facilities at work, even the lesser-powered stations that celebrate a five hundred watt tower with the tip of a champagne glass. While one of these radio waves crossed the path of my ears, I overheard an ad campaign by Lance. The slogan goes exactly like this: “Lance sandwich crackers and cookies; big enough to keep hunger at bay, small enough to keep in your pants.”
This marketing leap is something I dwelled over for a long time. The only significant consumer pull I could find would be the fact that Americans are in the middle of a health frenzy, notably begun by the low-carb-everything of 2004, and perhaps they are looking for a better snack food to carry around in their tight, chinos. However, one of the ads, after shooting down regular candy bars, takes a shot at energy bars by claiming “let the French have their dough” while Americans apparently are truly being fed on high-calorie Lance sandwich crackers … ?
It’s also highly counter-productive seeing how most people don’t carry around small items in pants anymore; accessory items for toting goods are becoming more prevalent in all areas, as far as I have been noticing. Maybe they were going for a good laugh… or a good rhyme. Maybe it was a shot-in-the-dark and a few grandiose marketing gurus will end up being shown their way out the door.
I hope so. The only way I could shower myself from that distraught mindset that those ridiculous ads placed in my head was to wash the Jetta. Then I heard there is a forecast for thunderstorms on Thursday.
And now I’m counter-productive!
April 5th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
Ryan,
From reading that, I’m wondering… What the heck are they thinking? If you are one that could take that ad the wrong way, that “keep in your pants” phrase sounds like something that should be kept on an episode of the Jerry Springer, or Howard Stern show, (I’m not a fan of either show, mind you). What really adds confuseableness is: Why would they go great links to make an ad so suggestive… other than to try and sell their crackers and stuff?
April 6th, 2005 at 12:53 am
You like it, we all do. Entertainment is fucking KEY. reading through your words reinforces one conclusion. That “lance” thing is bizarre, but you. you’re hot. bizarre and hot. you go.
April 6th, 2005 at 6:37 am
Camden, making an ad suggestive is actually what it takes to sell a product. Remember the uber-idiotic commericial with Jimmy Stewart during the 2004 Super Bowl? It was Jimmy Stewart talking…. TALKING! A man. like him. talking. on television! He was throwing a football through this tire trying to sell “let’s rid impotence from our society” products. But it worked. It was lame and it worked.
Entertainment is the key. I’ve got Lance in my pants. It’s dumb, but I’ll remember it because it is dumb. My blog was only questioning the schema behind it, and why that route was chosen. Perhaps because there are few, precious few, other ways to market sandwich crackers.
April 6th, 2005 at 4:03 pm
Advertising and publicity isn’t always about making sense, it’s about making an impression. As Ryan stated, he’ll remember that ad. That’s their objective. They’ve won
April 7th, 2005 at 10:08 pm
Hey! I keep my iPod Shuffle in my pants! Not as tasty as a nip-chee cracker, but much more satisfying for commutes to work.