NewsBytes: Monopoly in the Pink, Unilever Getting “Axed,” and the Rarity Agenda
1) A pink and girly “boutique” version of Monopoly recently got some attention on the Popgadget blog. Well, this is exactly what all girls and women have been waiting for. It makes the game so much more, hmm.. engaging. As Jenn wrote: “…the thimble, dog, and all the other way-too-masculine playing pieces
have been replaced with sandals, a purse, hair dryer, and other objects
that girls can recognize.” Thank goodness.
2) Is Unilever Axing the Dove Effect? There’s a great piece by Alana Semuels in the Los Angeles Times (reg. required) on the disconnect among brands at Unilever. While “Onslaught,” the recently released follow up to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty/Self Esteem Fund’s “Evolution” video, is amazingly powerful in a way that will strike anyone who sees it - but especially parents of little girls, the new Axe Vice campaign and its several minute long video, “naughty to nice,” may reach a very narrowly targeted group of young men while offending pretty much everyone else. One is cause-related and one is not - but I tend to agree with Kelly O’Keefe, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth AdCenter, who was quoted in the article, saying that Unilever was: “playing with fire” if it was thinking that
the divergence “wouldn’t be picked up on at some point.” (My question: will those consumers, male and female, who are offended or alienated by this disconnect start making “noise” online and off?)
3) As reported by Jonathan Bell for Viewpoint (an international trend-analyzing publication), “The Rarity Agenda, the relationship between luxury and scarcity, is constantly challenged by innovations in production and marketing. “ And, that “agenda” filters down to the less affluent, as well: “Traditional means of ‘luxury’ enhancement such as limited editions and expensive finishes and materials are increasingly commonplace within mass market design.” I also loved the term, “stealth wealth” as mentioned in the article, which refers to a product with “subtle cues that are readable only to the cognoscenti.”
