Tacky ads trigger debate over edgy campaigns

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/3927722.html
Tacky ads trigger debate over edgy campaigns
John Reinan, Star Tribune

Published June 10, 2003

If you think diarrhea jokes are a bad way to sell Mexican food, you probably won't be stopping to eat at Chino Latino.

And that's fine with them.

With billboards that take off on topics ranging from migrant workers to penis humor to Sally Struthers' waistline, the Uptown Minneapolis fusion restaurant may be the Twin Cities' leading practitioner of edgy advertising.

If you don't get the joke, then they don't want your business.

With the average American exposed to some 3,000 "advertising impressions" a day, companies and their ad agencies more than ever are searching for ways to stand out from the crowd.

Increasingly, that means pushing the envelope with edgy ads, especially those that target a youthful market.

Death-row inmates selling clothing for Benetton. Bouncing breasts selling beer for Miller Lite. Cheerfully mangled English selling sushi for the Japanese restaurant Fuji Ya in south Minneapolis.


But sometimes the envelope pushes back. The edgier the ad, the greater the risk of offending someone.

In the Twin Cities, ads for Chino Latino and Fuji Ya have drawn protests from Asian-American groups that say the ads exploit stereotypes of Asians.

Still, local ad executives say the cluttered marketplace is forcing them to take chances.

"People are hyper-politically correct," said Jerry Fury, partner and creative director at Clarity Coverdale Fury in Minneapolis. "So our philosophy is, we always want to do what's appropriate for the brand.

"But at the same time, because it's harder and harder to get everybody's attention, we always want to go right to the limit."

The limit has shifted in recent years as standards have loosened across all media. There was a time when the word "pregnant" couldn't be uttered on television and married couples in sitcoms slept in twin beds.

"Now you're seeing bare butts on TV," Fury said. "And the movies keep ramping it up more and more. So the American palate for edginess is being broadened and challenged all the time by TV and movies, and advertising tries to follow in those footsteps and see how far it can go."

Does edgy sell?

There's some question about whether edgy ads actually sell the products they're touting. Miller Brewing abruptly ended its "Cat Fight" campaign for Miller Lite beer after the ads failed to generate increased sales.

The campaign's key ad featured two busty women tearing off their blouses and tumbling into a pond as they fought over whether the beer tasted great or was less filling.

Some advertisers welcome controversy. They're willing -- even eager -- to offend some portion of the public if it means that another portion will get their message.

"There's an increasing movement to define your brand negatively, not positively," said Patti Williams, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

"That, in some cases, involves taking very strong positions -- and perhaps alienating some consumers in saying to your target consumers, 'I am who you want me to be, not who others want me to be.'

"Love and hate are both passions," Williams said. "And marketers are reaching to make a long-term, passionate connection."

Chino Latino is a prime example of the passionate approach.

Although Chino's brash billboards, carrying messages such as "Happy Hour: Cheaper Than A Bangkok Brothel," have sparked protests, the restaurant's owners said controversy was part of their plan.

"We heard from the print-skirt, gauze-blouse, Birkenstock crowd," said Phil Roberts, chief executive of Parasole Inc., the holding company that owns Chino Latino and several other restaurants.

"There was a petition with a thousand signatures. There was an organized campaign to clog our cell phones," he said. "And business went up, by the way. Noticeably."

Kip Clayton, who develops marketing plans for Parasole's restaurants, said the Chino Latino ads are reaching their target.

"There's a crowd of twentysomethings, dressed in black Armani, who are not attracted by a Pizza Hut ad," said Clayton, vice president of business development and marketing for Idein LLC. "There's a part of the audience that looks forward to the theater you create. You're not just white noise."

To put it more bluntly: If a customer doesn't like Chino Latino's ads, "he's wound too tight to eat there," Roberts said. "Go to Applebee's."

Another Minneapolis restaurant has raised eyebrows with a saucy campaign that some have accused of ethnic stereotyping.

Fuji Ya ads feature attractive Japanese women posed with garbled English translations of Japanese characters. One example: "Eating us will bring smile."

Co-owner Tom Hanson said the ads are meant to evoke a chuckle from anyone who's ever wrestled with a badly translated owner's manual.

"We're making fun of a phenomenon that transcends ethnicity," he said. "Anyone who's ever bought a wagon or a toy that's been made in another country has had some broken-up language in the instructions. We decided to use that because we thought it was funny."

Not laughing

But some Asians aren't laughing. The local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League sent a letter of protest to the restaurant, and the Council on Asian and Pacific Minnesotans also has expressed concern.

"The image of the Asian as speaking broken English, that we can make fun of them because of their English -- you're really hitting on a point that the community is starting to come to grips with, and they don't like it," said Ilean Her, executive director of the council.

"Another stereotype is the Asian woman as the object of sexual desire, and we're trying to get away from that," Her said.

But Fuji Ya is the Twin Cities' oldest Japanese restaurant, and co-owner Carol Weston Hanson is Japanese-American. The models in the ads are Fuji Ya employees who took part in the campaign willingly. What's more, the ad executive behind the campaign has two adopted Asian daughters.

"We're poking a little fun at ourselves," said Sue Kruskopf, chief executive of Kruskopf Olson in Minneapolis. "Certainly, I've heard enough blonde jokes. The people who work at Fuji Ya, and the spouses of Japanese and Asian heritage, don't take it that seriously. That was our litmus test.

"You do what's appropriate for every client," she said. "We're talking to a certain demographic that we're appealing to, and everybody's having a little fun."

And most advertising veterans learned long ago that no matter how careful you are, there's always someone who won't like what you do.

"We did an ad a couple of years ago for L.L. Bean online," said Tom Kelly, executive creative director at Martin/Williams in Minneapolis. "It was about looking to L.L. Bean for your last-minute holiday gifts, and it went, 'Only you can prevent fruitcake. Shop at L.L. Bean.com.'

"And they got letters from the National Fruitcake Association, saying, 'Hey, our business is tough enough.' "