May 29th, 2001
Alcatel Gets Static from 'Dead' Ad Campaign
By Michael McCarthy
USA Today
Is nothing sacred on Madison Avenue?
The ad industry has traditionally glommed onto pop culture trends. But now advertisers are appropriating people and things we revere to serve commercial purposes. It’s sparking a debate over whether anything, or anybody, is off-limits.
Do you love the Beatles? Then you probably either love or hate Philips Electronics’ use of their song Getting Better over and over in TV commercials.
Grow up watching Popeye the Sailor? Then you probably have a strong opinion about Minute Maid’s new cartoon spot which Cathy Renna of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) calls “gay vague” advertising.
Advertisers are even drafting our dead heroes to endorse their products. The most controversial use lately of a posthumous pitchman?
Alcatel using Martin Luther King Jr. in a commercial created by Arnold Worldwide, Boston.
Gary Ruskin, director of Ralph Nader’s Commercial Alert, says, “If Alcatel thinks it brings credit upon itself by ripping off dead heroes and reducing them to the level of Joe Isuzu and the Taco Bell Chihuahua, it needs to think a little harder.”
The buzz over the King spot led one reporter to quiz White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on whether President Bush believes there are “any limits” to commercialism.
Alcatel is a $ 29 billion French telecommunications company that is trying to buy U.S. rival Lucent Technologies. You might think a French company trying to make a splash in the USA would yank a touchy spot. Au contraire.Alcatel ignored the protests.
What’s more, it’s now airing a second, similar spot featuring footage of terminally ill Lou Gehrig’s famous “Luckiest Man Alive” speech at Yankee Stadium.
Don’t like it? Tough, the phone company says. “We began the campaign with almost no awareness. Now we’re water cooler talk,” says Brad Burns, senior vice president of corporate communications for Alcatel Americas in Dallas. “From a branding perspective, we couldn’t be more pleased.”
That awareness might be negative, however, according to the results of Ad Track, USA TODAY’s consumer poll.
Of those familiar with the ad, just 15% like it “a lot,” well below the Ad Track survey average of 22%. And 21% of consumers “dislike” the commercial, well above the average of 13%. African-American consumers were the most put off: 35% “dislike” the spot. Only 8% of consumers think the spot is “very effective,” much lower than the Ad Track average of 24%.
Burns (who would not let ad agency Arnold talk about the ad) says the results don’t worry him.
The King commercial is more of a “business-to-business” ad aimed at executives, investors and current and potential employees.
“We’re not a consumer company,” he says. Burns believes Alcatel is “extending King’s message to a new generation.” But Ruskin counters: “King devoted his entire life to the struggle for civil rights—not to lining the pockets of Alcatel shareholders.”