In these days of slashed marketing budgets, a new brand relations horror story seems to pop up at least once a week. KFC, Popeye’s, Domino’s and Tropicana are some of the latest, just to name a tragic few. Campaigns Gone Wrong have always happened but in these days of woe and want they seem to sting a little more. These cases seem to reinforce the corporate (and increasingly popular) notion that advertising is a waste of resources and carries with it the potential to do more harm than good.
So let’s take a short trip down memory lane and look at a campaign that WORKS. Not only does it work, it’s pitch-perfect in tone, delivery, and promise. I’m talking about Energy BBDO’s “Damn Right” campaign for that ol’ workhorse of a whisky, Canadian Club; a perfect marriage between brand and concept.
THE BRAND: Canadian Club. C.C. is NOT Jack Daniel’s. Canadian Club is a whisky people drank before people began to think about the whisky that they drank. Before it was a considered a potential accessory to your own personal brand. Any seasoned drinker knows C.C. is a whisky best used as a mixer. And being that, Canadian Club has never been a big-shot drink. It’s the Miller High-Life of whisky. It doesn’t have the Old South, rough-hewn and traditional feeling of J.D.’s 1.0 Brand, nor does it have the sexy rock n’ roll in a dive bar image of J.D.’s 2.0 Brand. It’s not an aficionado’s drink like Maker’s Mark, and it’s never had a makeover. It’s the whisky of insurance salesmen and golfers. Like Old Spice and High-Life before it, it was a brand that time, and a whole generation forgot. The target was 21-40 year old males that had no familiarity with the brand.
THE CONCEPT: “DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT”. A great dad is naturally skilled at telling you just enough about his past to get your imagination going and then stopping short of the details. My father is a good example. Hot-rodder, tunnel rat in ‘Nam, moto-x racing, gun-enthusiast, preacher. (Daddy was a bit of a bad ass.) These keywords have colored in the missing pieces of the dad puzzle so that 25% of what I know about his past is truth and 75% is myth. These print ads (YES. print ads. The Canadian Club of new media – works great as a mixer.) do a great job at taking advantage of that fact. It’s the reverse end of “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile”. If it was good enough for Dad, then it ought to be good enough for your soft, girlie ass cause your dad was one hell of a guy.
You have to admire that in these “please drink responsibly” times, Energy BBDO hasn’t forgotten what whisky is about. At its best, BOOZE LEADS TO SEX. No denying it. No watering it down. The headlines do a great job of bringing up sex without making you think about sex. That’s hard to do.
There is something to learn from the art direction, too. The type reminds you of a whisky label without trying too hard. The photography (The actual fathers of BBDO and C.C. employees) is vintage and authentic, complete with printer’s marks and processing mistakes. It’s all simple and unobtrusive, not the star.
What really makes these ads great is they never make a promise that C.C. can’t keep. They aren’t trying to make C.C. look like the latest hip, small-batch bourbon (though C.C. does boast small-batch and finer vintages), or turn it into a cult brand. It’s not dressed up. It’s wearing the same plaid golfing pants it was wearing 40 years ago. Canadian Club hasn’t changed. You have. And the new You might enjoy a whisky cocktail.
The flip side of my shameless praise is a google away. Several bloggers had a field day deriding this concept and using the “Create Your Own Damn Right Ad” function on the Club website for mockery and unintended amusement. It’s usually the sexual aspect of the ads that distracts them from the point. But children are like that. The point isn’t sex, or even that your dad could of been getting a lot of tail. Just that your dad was a cool guy, he drank C.C. and you should try to be more like your dad. It’s sorta beautiful.
C.C.’s fantastic site to support the campaign.
