Who lets the cats out

There’s no such thing as bad publicity" may be an oft-quoted marketing chestnut. But, asks Jon Rees, can "playing dirty" really pay dividends in a company’s long-term strategy?

WHAT GIVES a brand an identity? What makes it stand out from the pack? Well, for one of the biggest drinks companies in the world it’s simple: two buxom women wrestling in wet cement.

In an advertising campaign designed to appeal to its target market’s basest instincts, WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather in New York, along with the independent agency Wieden & Kennedy, have been working hard to associate Miller Lite beer with all that its target market of young men find most appealing in life.

 The result is a series of commercials that have garnered many column inches of press comment, generally of the "this is outrageous, especially that part where you can see virtually everything" type.

First, a run-through of the kind of thing that has been causing such commotion in the US among liberal commentators, while at the same time delighting Miller’s distributors, 500 of whom whooped with joy when they were shown the commercials at a convention in Las Vegas a few weeks ago.

The flagship commercial is the one referred to at the beginning of this piece. In a bitter dispute over the precise qualities of Miller Lite (which, as all good American beer drinkers know now if they did not before, "tastes great" and is "less filling") a pair of scantily-clad, busty gals move from a pool-side argument over the merits of Miller Lite to a full-on, clothes-shredding wrestling match in wet cement clad only in their underwear.

The ad is well-known as "Catfight" to the extent that its two stars, Kitana Baker and Tanya Ballinger, have appeared in publications across the US as well as on various talk shows.

The pair, and the commercial, are also one of the most popular internet searches, according to online firm Terra Lycos.

The commercial was aired during the US football play-offs earlier this year and immediately caused ructions, being compared favourably or unfavourably (depending on your point of view) with the notorious commercial for Old Milwaukee beer featuring the Swedish Bikini Team.

In the words of one female "image guru," Laura Ries, quoted by USA Today, "Every time I see it, I cringe. It’s explicit, it’s degrading, it has no real message except ‘all men are idiots and all they think about are girls mud-wrestling’."

Her views were shared by a fair number of people, as at least 200 have e-mailed their displeasure to Miller Brewing.  However, a further 200 e-mailed the company expressing their whole-hearted support, and Miller itself is unrepentant. As Tom Bick, Miller Lite brand manager, told the paper, he was happy that the ad had hit the mark with its target market of 21 to 31-year-old beer drinkers.

"They see it for what it is: a hysterical insight into guys’ mentalities. It is really a light-hearted spoof of guys’ fantasies," he said.  The combination of outrage and publicity has delighted the company, which believes that this single commercial has achieved the desired effect, and is now planning to run out an entire series in the same vein.

These include one showing a bare-chested man getting publicly spanked by a bra-busting babe.  There is also a new version, starring former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson, called "Pillow Fight," which has a number of different endings because some are likely to prove so controversial that Miller is concerned that the networks in the US may refuse to run them.

The commercial seen by Miller distributors shows Anderson interrupting the buxom brawlers to ask, "Can I get in on this?" Despite the apparent throwback to the values of a "better age," there is a serious intent behind the commercials. 

Miller needs to make more of a bang for its buck. It is not the biggest brewer in the US; that title belongs to Anheuser-Busch, owner of Budweiser.

Indeed, Miller is a lightweight in the advertising market compared with its enormous rival, spending only US$230.5m a year on advertising compared to Anheuser-Busch’s US$425.1m.  "It’s tough to be clever when no one pays attention to you," one Miller executive was quoted as telling a US advertising publication.

"We have to fight dirty to keep what’s ours." For Miller, too, the commercial comes at a time when senior management at the brewer is being reshuffled as it adapts to life as part of one of the world’s biggest brewing businesses, South Africa-based SAB.

Being owned by the brewer rather than, as before, by a tobacco company (Philip Morris) has made a difference to the way it is able to hone its brand identity, reckon insiders at the company.

For instance, research showed consistently that the "buxom women wrestling" routine was always going to be a winner with Miller’s target market. In fact, the company’s advertising agencies had lighted on the idea more than a decade before the present commercial was aired.

But before we all jump to the conclusion that advertising executives really need to get out more, it should be noted that early executions of the commercial would have been significantly different: rather than wrestling in wet cement, the women would have wrestled in mud or jelly.

However, Miller would not run these commercials, in part because the premise was deemed too lascivious for a tobacco marketer which also sold Kraft cheese products to housewives. Not so SAB, which has no such qualms.

The brand has been provided with a distinct identity compared with its more upmarket, better-established, higherspending – if more staid – rival, Budweiser.  It took a change of ownership to do it, along with a preparedness to confront and dismiss political correctness – in the view of the commercial’s supporters, at least.

It is early days, but the commercial seems to have worked, at least according to the drink’s distributors.  Some of them have credited the "Catfight" commercial with providing double-digit growth in the month it broke, while impending executions have been rapturously received.

 In this case, at least, appealing to baser instincts proved the right way to create a distinct brand.