Oatly takes out ad in The Guardian to mock 'desperately out of touch' parents about pronouns in email signatures

[theskyispink]

twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1355862358728597507/photo/1

Take a drink - another drinks company goes ultra-woke.

What the fuck?!?!

You reminded me of a true story shared by an old advertising copywriter, Jerry della Femina. His company had landed the National Panasonic account .Back then being a Japanese firm was a drawback credibility wise. Japanese goods were regarded as cheap copies of things made in the West - and then there was the War. So in a brainstorming session with the top executives della Femina said ' hey I got a slogan, the whole campaign can be built on this slogan' What is it Jerry ? - ' From those wonderful people who brought you Pearl Harbour!' Silence. Of course nobody said it was a great slogan , for obvious reasons. But neither did anyway say it was in awful taste. And worst of all , he thought , nobody laughed. Later he realised they were all frozen with fear : what if the boss liked it ? Such is the wacky world of PR.

I heard a tale that after the Jonestown tragedy, a marketing executive noted that the poison used was made by his firm, and telexed the director to suggest they use the pictures in adverts (possibly in a black humour vein). The reply was that it made good sense but was unlikely to lead to repeat business.

@SerendipityJane

You reminded me of a true story shared by an old advertising copywriter, Jerry della Femina. His company had landed the National Panasonic account .Back then being a Japanese firm was a drawback credibility wise. Japanese goods were regarded as cheap copies of things made in the West - and then there was the War. So in a brainstorming session with the top executives della Femina said ' hey I got a slogan, the whole campaign can be built on this slogan' What is it Jerry ? - ' From those wonderful people who brought you Pearl Harbour!' Silence. Of course nobody said it was a great slogan , for obvious reasons. But neither did anyway say it was in awful taste. And worst of all , he thought , nobody laughed. Later he realised they were all frozen with fear : what if the boss liked it ? Such is the wacky world of PR.

I heard a tale that after the Jonestown tragedy, a marketing executive noted that the poison used was made by his firm, and telexed the director to suggest they use the pictures in adverts (possibly in a black humour vein). The reply was that it made good sense but was unlikely to lead to repeat business.

Ha...at least there is some evidence of a sense of humour at work there !

I got a reply. Totally dismissive, and sarcastic.

Thanks for posting Xanthangum and Terfy.

I am sure that I read a book once about how all corporations basically function in a similar way to psychopaths.

Still we’ve got to eat, drink and wear clothes. I have a recipe for homemade oat milk. Avoiding processed and branded foods as much as possible is a good goal I think. Food in as natural a state as possible ideally grown as close to home as possible is a good idea for most people from a health and ethical point of view. Not easy with a busy modern life but a good ideal to aim for in my opinion.

Oh wow Terfy.

He told you to fuck off.

Oatley Ratner.

Oatner.

Ratley.

Take your pick.

Very true Daisies.

Well, I guess they really have set their stall out by actually calling it the department of mind control 🤣 I suppose I am just too much of a gimmer to get how subversive and marvellous that is.

The Oatly shelf was untouched in Sainsbos today, whereas alpro was on offer for £1, and I took the last three.

Well, I guess they really have set their stall out by actually calling it the department of mind control

I suspect that's one of those "jokey" things that is intended to make you think they're a laugh a minute sort of outfit.

Rhod Gilbert has a pitch perfect routine about trying to see the Smoothie Woothie crew (at Innocent smoothies as 'twas) at Fruit Towers, following their jokey "why not pop and see us" tag on a carton.

@SerendipityJane I think Dave Gorman did a similar thing with Innocent
.

@Leafstamp

I just got the following response from Oatly:

"Thanks for taking the time to get in touch to share your thoughts with us and so sorry for the delayed response here. Our inbox has been overflowing with responses to our campaign so it’s taking us a quite a while to get through each and every message.

I’m sorry to hear that you found our Guardian ad patronising, it was of course not our intention though is something we will take on board. Our goal with this campaign is to open up the discussions about the environmental impact of our daily food choices. Our campaign aims to bring a bit of humour to help get these conversations about sustainability started and certainly not to upset anyone. However, the response has been very mixed, with it being taken very seriously by some readers which is something we are taking on board.

We really appreciate your support for the oat so far and are sorry that our Guardian ad caused you offence. However, if you decide that Oatly is no longer for you, I hope that you are able to find a plant-based alternative that you enjoy just as much as our products.

Thanks again for getting in touch and sharing your thoughts with us, we appreciate it. If you have any other questions or thoughts, we're happy to answer them."

It will be interesting to see if their next campaign tries to win back some of us who wrote in to complain! I'm actually going back to watered down cow's milk!

I got a similar reply yesterday

I'm now happily making my own oat milk (I may diversify into almond milk soon). I don't know why I never did this before - I assumed it was 'hard' to do.

I have found their marketing/promos to be quite silly and daft (a bit like jokey projects we produced when I was at art school to put into shows to see if people took them seriously), and not offensive.

I did find this campaign quite patronising and divisive (reinforcing the whole 'parents are ignorant dinosaurs, etc'.).

I hope they do take a look at the comments and learn from them.

I got this response, which seems to be we're sorry you're not down with the kids, this ain't your bag. Totally ignored the several GC concerned points I made.

From a handmaiden I guess.

^^Hi there,

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. I'm sorry for our delayed response.

It is the intention for our advertising campaigns to be thought-provoking and get a conversation started about food and climate, it is never our intention to cause upset or offense.

As with all of our campaigns and communications, we try to relay an informative or fun message and trust our community to listen if this is their thing, and not listen if it's not.

If you're interested you can read more about our thought process behind this particular campaign here: help-dad.com/numbers-and-such/

We really appreciate your support so far and will of course reflect on your comments moving forward so thank you again for bringing this to our attention.

All the best,^^

Sorry but I got as far as 'We all know that dads love stats'. What a cheek (speaking as a stats geek).

Someone in the marketing department - or more likely agency - (maybe even a mum!) will be collating the campaign stats on SM reach, clicks and retweets etc, and the HoM will be cheering the numbers... but there IS such a thing as bad publicity. Maybe the boring old stats from sales will tell a different tale.

Some of us do understand (relevant) stats, and we know is a campaign is doing more harm than good.

Business Development/Sales/Marketing 101 - for those at the back of the class

1. Job = to sell (more) products
2. Job isn't = to patronise, insult and/or alienate prospects/customers, (thereby not doing point 1, above)

I suspect the only way to get through to companies like this is to point out to them that WOKE culture is going out of favour with the influencers and cutting edge societal trends. All the kids are into radical feminism now.

I emailed back saying they've lost me as a customer until they issue a public apology.
I also reminded them the stats were completely irrelevant to my point, apart from being a little sexist, thus proving my point. I also pointed out as a vegan I am well aware of those statistics.

I'm confused as to who they think their key demographic is. We're a vegan family so you would have thought they'd try harder for my custom.

Alpro and own brand until further notice then!

If I am particularly annoyed by a company I point out that the best way to gain loyal customers is through word of mouth - and say that I am generally someone who will recommend a product I think is good or enjoy.

I don't ever say that I will badmouth them - but I remind them that in an over-saturated market, personal recommendations are a pretty good way to gain new customers.

offense

That alone offends me.

American English though - I assume its a UK based brand?

Looks like they messed up a bit in the US too. Many customers not happy
www.theguardian.com/food/2020/sep/01/oatly-vegan-milk-sale-blackstone

Yes I saw that.

Sadly when companies try to make a 'big noise' it only serves to shines a light on their other business activities - and there is always some skeletons in the closet waiting to jump out and do a dance.

Alpro is cheaper and does it in chocolate flavour.

I have been carefully comparing Oatly versus Alpro stock levels every time I go shopping. (I usually buy supermarket own brand or Alpro.) Always seems to have fuller shelves for Oatly.

@ThatIsNotMyUsername

American English though - I assume its a UK based brand?

If your company wants to make oodles of money in the UK, which is all Oatley will ever care about, then it's not too much off the bottom line to employ someone in that country to do the communications.

Rather than run the whole show from the US (because it saves a wage) and preach down to us.

....Is one point of view that some might take.

Based in Sweden, but now an international company.

It seems that we're not the only ones to find this campaign bafflingly misguided. (I didn't realise there was a shit TV ad too!)

www.thegrocer.co.uk/marketing/oatlys-help-dad-ad-is-nasty-sneering-and-wrong-about-dairy/652240.article

www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/oatlys-help-dad-campaign/