Ozzie and Samsung
By now I am sure that you have seen the spots for the Samsung qwerty equipped Propel cell phones featuring Ozzie Osborne mumbling his way through his day and only making through because he can text what he means quickly to those who cannot understand him. While I am not sure exactly what he has, some call it ‘tremors’ and others say it is a mild form of Parkinson’s, but whatever it is Samsung and Leo Burnett had to have weighed the risks in running this campaign. No matter what you do anymore, there is going to be a group that wants to complain. How does an organization measure that risk?
I believe that you can measure the risk in an ads potential “viral value”. It might cost a standard $3-5 million to get a campaign done, but if it stirs enough muck up from the bottom of the pond and gets attention, any attention; it has done its job. It doesn’t matter of you are ‘forced’ to pull it after 4, 5, or 8 weeks. People will then look to YouTube to see what people are talking about. The ad will be watched and no media buys were needed! Does this type of approach come without risk then? No. It doesn’t. Even if your talent has agreed to poke fun or make light of their condition, many others who have it, know people that have it, and/or care for those who have it can take offense. To a large and loud degree. The PR backlash can be huge.
PR issues are bad enough. Self-inflicted PR issues are even worse. If you have a laptop line that can spontaneously burst into flames, that is a bad situation. Intentionally producing potentially ‘offensive’ advertising is quite another.
Ozzy is not a fool. His wife Sharon is reputed to be one of the shrewdest business managers around. This is by no means a mocking of the man or his condition. But perception and reality are two very different things, and quite often perception is the only thing that matters.
There is no way that the Osborne’s need the money. They have tons of cash. Perhaps they are donating the money to Parkinson’s research? Perhaps they just wanted to add to their checking account. Who knows, but I am just waiting for some group to start calling for the ads to be pulled. Often when they cry loud enough, corporate PR suggests pulling the ads and they are then relegated to being on YouTube.
Any way that you look at it, it’s a clever campaign and I don’t think Ozzie is being manipulated, and if he is, it is by his wife. I hope that it continues to run. Good work Leo Burnett.
I believe that you can measure the risk in an ads potential “viral value”. It might cost a standard $3-5 million to get a campaign done, but if it stirs enough muck up from the bottom of the pond and gets attention, any attention; it has done its job. It doesn’t matter of you are ‘forced’ to pull it after 4, 5, or 8 weeks. People will then look to YouTube to see what people are talking about. The ad will be watched and no media buys were needed! Does this type of approach come without risk then? No. It doesn’t. Even if your talent has agreed to poke fun or make light of their condition, many others who have it, know people that have it, and/or care for those who have it can take offense. To a large and loud degree. The PR backlash can be huge.
PR issues are bad enough. Self-inflicted PR issues are even worse. If you have a laptop line that can spontaneously burst into flames, that is a bad situation. Intentionally producing potentially ‘offensive’ advertising is quite another.
Ozzy is not a fool. His wife Sharon is reputed to be one of the shrewdest business managers around. This is by no means a mocking of the man or his condition. But perception and reality are two very different things, and quite often perception is the only thing that matters.
There is no way that the Osborne’s need the money. They have tons of cash. Perhaps they are donating the money to Parkinson’s research? Perhaps they just wanted to add to their checking account. Who knows, but I am just waiting for some group to start calling for the ads to be pulled. Often when they cry loud enough, corporate PR suggests pulling the ads and they are then relegated to being on YouTube.
Any way that you look at it, it’s a clever campaign and I don’t think Ozzie is being manipulated, and if he is, it is by his wife. I hope that it continues to run. Good work Leo Burnett.
posted by One Eyed Dog Productions at 1:33 PM
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