Liquor Companies Stumble Trying to Make a Difference
Posted by davidpleach on February 22, 2008
Your eyes probably pop as much as mine at the quality of advertising when you flip through Real Simple magazine. They clearly demand that advertisers take it to the next level before they plunk their money down. RS isn’t printing any old ad.
This ad caught Laura’s (my wife) eye.
When you read this, you know there’s a non-profit pitch coming, so I’m looking for the promotional details–like who is the charity, who is the partner (if any), and what is the value for the consumer–as always.The promotion is straight forward enough: buy this scarf and “100% of the net profits benefit Dress for Success.” The scarf is $30.
Though I am a huge fan of the Dress for Success mission–to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life–this ad/promotion has its problems. First, the percent-of-profit approach when communicating with the public, well, I’m not a fan. How profit is calculated can vary with every company. What does the scarf cost? Is someone donating labor? What is the overhead? Just tell us what the commitment is: is
it 100% of the $30? or 10-bucks? or 2 bucks? Tell me what I’m contributing already. Second, the sponsoring partner lounges around at the bottom like a carp in the fine print : the employees and families of Bailey’s liqueur and Ciroc Vodka. The ad directs you to SomethingToShare.org to buy your scarf, but when there you find nothing about Bailey’s or Ciroc (though there is a link about “Party with a Purpose” that is supposed to have a downloadable PDF, but doesn’t). In fact, all kinds of sponsors for Dress for Success receive logo space, but neither alcohol company is seen anywhere. Nor do Bailey’s or Ciroc’s sites promote Dress for Success. The lift to their brands is barely bigger than 7-point print that cites them.
This promotion has the signs of a non-profit that is a tad ashamed of its liquor-swilling sponsor–and since the Ciroc website highlights a Diddy video laced with profanity and the N, MF, and B words you understand.
I can think of a half-dozen ways to take the kernels of this promotion and turn it into something of serious value for disadvantaged women, consumers, and the liquor brands without costing much if any more money. Can’t you?
As it is, Dress for Success convinced a liquor company to pay for an ad that will likely stir a disappointing buzz.
