By Cliff Courtney
Oct. 27, 2011
Does the Pillsbury Dough Boy really have a lot to say? Are you itching for your copy of the Michelin Man’s memoirs? And does anyone doubt for a second that when Mr. Clean posts on Twitter, it’s being penned by a junior marketing associate at Procter & Gamble whose task it is to monitor social media and develop content, sans true social branding blueprint?
Dimensionalizing a brand is a good thing. And with Facebook and Twitter, et.al., the platform to connect brands on a social and personal level with consumers has never been more opportunistic and the ground never more fertile.
But just because you hand a brand a megaphone, doesn’t mean the people behind the brand know what to do with it.
Advertising’s iconic characters, which have been drawn up and developed perhaps enough to fill a 30-second TV spot and look good on a grocery POP, don’t necessarily have a voice. And when they do, nobody has snapped, crackled or popped the code on how that voice can truly serve the brand.
Witness this Twitter post from Jack in the Box’s (literal) figurehead, a.k.a. @JackBox: “How come nobody leaves a flier for Ultimate Fighting or Monster Truck rallies on my windshield? It's always car washes or dry cleaning.”
Missed that one? Not to worry… Jack’s posted another 1,132 insightful and observational tweets just like it. The folks behind the brand would tell you that Jack's 'tude is essential to the brand, but it's a loopy dotted line that gets you from car washes to ROMI.
Here’s one from the Aflac Duck: “Chicago is a lovely city. But I'm still not too clear on that whole sauce on top of the pizza thing. Can anyone explain this?"
Just another one of life’s big questions for the duck’s 12,424 followers (and astounding 286,874 Facebook fans).
Or this Facebook post by none other than the M&Ms: “Decided to crowdsource my New Year's resolutions this year. Any suggestions?”
Pretty inane, but then again, I suppose M&M’s 1.8 million fans know something about hard shell candy humor that I don’t.