Few people these days will believe there’s really no such thing as bad publicity.
Even so, most marketers would consider a few snarky comments from internet critics a price worth paying for acres of free coverage. After all, on the internet everyone’s a critic.
Budweiser has followed the super-successful example of the Queensland tourist board with a new campaign offering one lucky competition winner what it claims is the best job in the world.
Instead of recording a video diary about how tough life is herding jellyfish by the Great Barrier Reef, the successful applicant will be paraded before the braying hordes of Britain’s music festivals swigging a bottle of Bud 66. They’ll get paid £10,000 for six days of what’s not exactly backbreaking labour.
The stunt has been picked up by the news blog on guardian.co.uk. And while it sounds like a pretty good deal for whichever suspiciously attractive bright young thing bags the gig, that hasn’t stopped the trendy ranks of Guardian readers from opting out with an array of arch critiques of the beer’s quality. And this ire is directed at the beer that positioned itself as the iPhone of lagers. If that’s not a direct appeal to your average Guardianista, what is?
Either way, consider the latest ruse a success. AB InBev has currently got its marketing heft behind Stella ‘See-dra’ – and the brewer has promised a “heavyweight” focus on the struggling Stella 4% later this year.
Recent sales of the lower-abv brand demonstrate amply the truth of Oscar Wilde’s Guardian-friendly aphorism on the horrors of not being talked about.
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