This was one of my favorite ads from the Super Bowl. It’s not just funny. Radio Shack effectively uses the spot to acknowledge that it has a tired brand and creatively invites viewers to revisit their assumptions and give them a chance as a modernized brand. If their stores live up to that new brand promise, they may well have a great future.
These commercials for Volvo & Allstate are examples of great, effective ads out there — really well done.
While I pride myself in the KIND culture embodied by our family at KIND, and while that includes always respecting our competitors, I couldn’t help commenting on the deceptive advertising by ThinkThin.
Fortunately the media has taken the lead to comment on how ThinkThin is an artificial blob of unpronounceable stuff and ranked ThinkThin as the WORST bar to consume.
But when I was walking by the Natural Products Expo East show and saw this sign, it prompted me to comment on how deceptive and deceitful it is.
First of all, their new tagline "It’s all about what’s inside" is embarrassing on their behalf, as "what’s inside" a ThinkThin bar is maltitol, an artificial product that does not exist in nature and does not belong in products proclaiming to be natural, along with other artificial ingredients that are hard to pronounce and that cause gas and bloating.
On top of that, they outright deceive consumers by comparing FRUIT & NUT bars to their bars, which contain no fruits, only nuts and artificial ingredients. They claim they have 70% less sugar that Fruit & Nut bars. But the way they achieve this feat is by a) including artificial sweeteners instead of real food like honey, and b) by excluding fruit but comparing themselves to a fruit bar. Well, fruit of course has natural sugar, and any nutritionist will recommend it to you. What nutritionists will not recommend is for you to eat maltitol or any of the unpronounceable stuff ThinkThin puts in their products.
If ThinkThin was honest it would have compared their Nut bars to NUT bars, such as KIND’s Nut Delight. If you make that comparison, their "70% less sugar" claim falls apart, and KIND’s Nut Delight, which doesn’t contain fruit, stands up much more favorably to the artificial nutritionals achieved by ThinkThin – with KIND’s product being totally natural and avoiding artificial sweeteners that are not found in nature, not to mention the supreme taste and quality of KIND products.
I have been in the natural industry for about 18 years and am proud that most companies are truly committed to truthfulness and integrity. It is disappointing when a few bad apples deceive consumers. ThinkThin has a history of trying to do so, growing, and then falling on its head and imploding when it is discovered. Its earlier incarnation was as a performance food bar that was supposed to make you smarter and all other sorts of nonsense. Then it imploded, and eventually it reinvented itself as a natural diet product, even though there is nothing natural about it.
Consumers are starting to take legal action to call to task companies that claim to make natural products while using artificial ingredients. A week ago, Shape Magazine also issued a story calling to task companies that claimed their nutritional bars were “all natural” even though they contain artificial ingredients, like ThinkThin.
Now comes this lawsuit against Kashi for using ingredients that are not natural…
Vitamin Water is running a creative ad campaign that is bursting with energy. Situated at bus stops across the country, Vitamin Water ads contain USB ports in which people can charge their phones while waiting for the bus. The ad sends a clear message: Vitamin Water is your source for all of your energy needs.
By Adeena Schlussel, spotted by Daniel Lubetzky.
Although this product claims to be sugar free, it has corn syrup as its third ingredient, after water and palm oil (along with many other artificial sweeteners). Because of the way regulations are, the small amount of corn syrup contained in this product can legally be disregarded, making the product “sugar free.” Although this is technically legal, it is dishonest, unethical and and perversion of the law. To advertise this corn-based sweetener which adds sugar to drinks as “sugar free,” is silly.
This Wall Street Journal article explores two innovative start ups that allow brands to advertise to potential customers without pestering them, creating a more positive association with their brand. As this trend suggests, as technology becomes more interactive, advertisers have the opportunity to be more creative in shaping how their consumer interacts with their brands on an individual level; it will be interesting to see which strategies are effective in this new world of advertising.
Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, by Adeena Schlussel
This is one of the best ads I have seen in a long time. And I would say the artistry and creativity qualifies it for true art.
A recent article in the New York Times reports that food marketers are pitching their products to children via Web sites that critics say blur the line between activities and advertising.
