Throwing Denmark's brand credibility out with the baby bath water
The saviour of modern marketing - Web 2.0 may have taken a a big dip in the credibility stakes today.
A video posted on You Tube apparently from a single Danish mum asks if anyone out in there on the web could own up to being the father of her adorable love-child - conceived in Denmark.
To all intents and purposes the video looks totally genuine. Watching the mother, it is actually quite upsetting. (The mother's tenacity and courage is a testament to her bravery). However, it turns out that the video is simply a Web 2.0 publicity stunt to draw attention to.... wait for it.... the Danish Tourist Board!
The mother is a very convincing actress who quietly and with dignity delivers lines like. I don’t remember where you’re from, I don’t even remember your name. We ended up having sex … the next morning when I woke up, you were gone.” ( I am sure the publicity will be great for her career).
The video has received around one million hits from presumably, men and 'friends' of men logging-in to see if they recognise the poor mum complete with her baby in arms.
Is this good advertising? In my opinion yes - but definitely NO WAY!
Let me explain...
On the plus side it has received worldwide publicity - including an interview that I participated in for the BBC World Service (See www.brandforensics.co.uk).
However, on the downside, what does this publicity stunt really say about Denmark and tourism - as well single mothers and the virtue of Danish girls?
"Jagshemash! My name a Borat. I like you. I like sex, it's nice. These are my country of a Kazakhstan". (From original Borat movie)
Perhaps it is symptomatic of a desperate marketing industry suffering from what I call, 'Borat Syndrome'.
When the movie, Borat came out, many were shocked by its realism, (not so much so with its recent follow up). But at least in the case of the movie - there was an interesting message.
In the case of Denmark, it just seems that the desperate folks from the land which bought us the Mohammed cartoons are doing everything possible to gain attention - which they have - but ignoring their basic message - tourism - assumedly - not sex tourism.
The other issue is that if brand messages are about to become all about shock and hoax rather than substance and relevance, there is a real danger that consumers - who are already hyper-cynical - will stop believing in them. (Not a great move by brands during a recession with both brands and media alike losing market share and credibility).
However, the most amazing thing about all this episode - above everything else is - that during the BBC interview the top Honcho at the Danish tourism board , who was also interviewed, was apparently totally unaware of the entire marketing campaign.
Now that really does make me think... as the ultimate custodian of the brand (in other words, ' the father' of all Danish tourism related campaigns) maybe this chap needs to check where he was the night the viral piece was shot and do the decent thing by claiming full responsibility for an ill- conceived campaign.
Jonathan Gabay
www.brandforensics.co.uk
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 7:02 pmand is filed under Misc, Tourism and travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
