"Tour de Farms" Bike Ride Misses Opportunity

There is a widespread U.S. phenomenon to lean local when it comes to buying produce. Farmer's markets have sprung up around the country, with an increasingly larger percentage of consumers helping local farmers by serving their families fresh produce. At the same time, fresh local produce helps our environment by transporting produce a few miles as opposed to hundreds of miles across the U.S. or even thousands of miles from foreign countries before being served at your kitchen table.

Braise Restaurant in Milwaukee, chose to marry America's love of local farm food with a call to action to participate in a healthy and educational bike ride called the "Tour de Farms." For $75, bikers had the opportunity to tour a number of local farms, learn about farming operations and sample freshly grown local food.

Cramer-Krasselt offers up some interesting print ads, which combine bicycle parts with fresh vegetables. The ads are clever and engaging. They quickly and eloquently communicate the intended message.

But, despite C-K's efforts, there is a gargantuan missed opportunity with this campaign. Surprisingly, there is another ride called "Tour de Farms" which took place a few months earlier in neighboring state, Illinois.  The whole purpose of this bike ride was to benefit the National MS Society. 

It seems like a giant misstep that the same event name was used and that Braise Restaurant missed out on a stellar opportunity to extend their locavore lifestyle towards helping their community.

Overall assessment? Great print ad campaign, but missed social marketing opportunity.

#6: CareerBuilder Monkeys Around

Capturing the #6 spot in the USA Today Super Bowl poll is CareerBuilder's mischievous chimp spot.

If you were a fan of the CareerBuilder monkeys during the 2005 and 2006 Super Bowls, you are in for a treat as the monkeys come back to reek havoc on the poor "human" office worker. This time, they pin him into his car by parking uncomfortably close, proving that he works with a bunch of monkeys.

Interestingly, CareerBuilder did not seek the assistance of Cramer-Krasselt, who was the agency that created the original monkey ads. Rather, they created these ads inhouse, using the same look, feel, and  actor that C-K used when the initial spot debuted. That ploy earned a 'raised eyebrow' from this planner.

In conjunction with this campaign, CareerBuilder is also resurrecting Monk-e-mail, which previously racked up 160 million viral messages, earning the status of being one of the most buzzed campaigns of all time.

I'm sure Cramer-Krasselt has some satisfaction in knowing that the monkeys were a good idea all along. After being forced to switch gears and air a different ad - Wild Jungle - during the 2007 Super Bowl, CareerBuilder and Cramer-Krasselt parted ways when the ad fell short of the USA Today Top 10 Super Bowl list.

While I was amused with this spot, immediately drawing the parallel back to earlier advertising, I discovered something interesting in the advertising class I teach at Marquette University. Only 2 of the 50 students recalled the original spots. So, not suprisingly, this ad left them a little mystified as to what was going on. 

College students are an important emerging target for CareerBuilder. My concern is that if they are not linking the ad to the original concept of "feeling like you're working with a bunch of monkeys," then the ad doesn't deliver its message.

Instead, it's just a bunch of cute, mischievous monkeys clowning around in a parking lot.

Sue's Grade: B-

Yellow Tail: Can You Gobble Wine?

I have been a fan of Yellow Tail's advertising for years. Its virtual simplicity and its consistent execution through all mediums has effectively helped to make the Yellow Tail brand iconic.

Whether it be the print ads shown here, or TV executions like Godzilla, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what item was going to be sporting a yellow tail next.

So, it's disturbing to me that Yellow Tail made such a departure from their iconic advertising. It would be nice to say that Yellow Tail's most recent Thankssgiving commercial just fell a bit flat. But, in truth, it filled me with a sense of loathing for the brand.

Plus, it didn't even make sense. The ad's tagline, "Great wine. Great Price. Gobble it up." left a question circling in my mind: Who the heck gobbles wine? Dicionary.com defines the word gobble as follows:

To swallow or eat hastily or hungrily in large pieces.

Get it Yellow Tail? To gobble means to eat not to drink.

Maybe it's time to re-hire the agency that brought you the wonderful yellow tail advertising that made you the best selling import wine in the U.S.