Word: brandes
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Covert product placement has been around for years, with movie and TV producers accepting cash for the casual positioning of a particular brand of soda or make of sports car in the background of a scene. But now the concept has leaped off the screen into other areas of life, often catching consumers unaware. Celebrities such as Lauren Bacall and Kathleen Turner appear on talk shows and praise prescription drugs without disclosing that they have been paid by the drugmakers. Marketers give expensive sneakers, colognes or even cars to young trendsetters on college campuses, at the fringes of show...
...next time an overly friendly blond sidles up in a crowded bar and asks you to order her a brand-name martini, or a cheery tourist couple wonder whether you can take their picture with their sleek new camera-in-a-cell phone, you might want to think twice. There's a decent chance that these strangers are pitchmen in disguise, paid to oh-so-subtly pique your interest in their product. Their game, known as "stealth marketing," is one of several unorthodox ploys that Madison Avenue is using to get through to jaded consumers...
Such stealthy efforts are but one phase of a larger growth industry of alternative and guerrilla marketing that ranges from handing out free samples to sponsoring concerts and other events. "We need to take our brand to them and not wait for them to come to us," says Hilary Dart, president of Calvin Klein Cosmetics. Its estimated $45 million campaign to launch the men's fragrance Crave this fall will include street sampling, product seeding among opinion leaders and other guerrilla tactics (even building sand sculptures of the Crave logo on beaches on both coasts) before any ads are unveiled...
Critics say stealth marketing is tinkering with our minds. Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, dubs the phenomenon the "brand washing of America." Many ad-industry executives are worried that it could all too easily backfire, making consumers even more wary. "I'm against any form of deception," says Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide. "In the end, it's bad business...
...stretch, but there's no denying that the major ad holding companies are having to justify the value of their creative work as never before. They are already hedging their bets, setting up or funding alternative shops in New York City or Los Angeles with such hip monikers as Brand Buzz, Renegade Marketing Group and Interference Inc. Al Ries, a veteran marketing strategist and co-author of the just-published book The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR (Harper Business), says the reason is simple: traditional advertising has lost most of its credibility. "Anything you say about yourself...