The “Naughties”. The “Noughties”. Whatever you choose to call the first decade of the new millennium, you’ll have to agree on one thing.

We’ve seen some absolutely stunning marketing. And some complete dross.

My marketing masterpiece of the 2000s seems to have been lifted from Withnail and I, whereas the marketing misfire probably wouldn’t even make it into Horne & Corden.

The Marketing Masterpiece

Magners Irish Cider – Bulmers (2004-2006)

(Disclaimer: I can’t stand cider. I’ve not touched it since about 1999, aged 14, in the park)

“Two large gins. Two pints of cider. Ice in the cider”
Withnail – Withnail & I

Remember cider back in the 90s? The drink of choice for the poor, the underage and the derelict.

Chances are that you’d pay for cider using change, most of it copper. You’d then swig your scuzzy scrumpy from the bottle in the glamorous surrounds of a shop doorway.

Fast forward a decade, and people with jobs are paying ridiculous prices for that same product and drinking it inside.

From glasses.

Over ice.

You wouldn't touch this when it was Woodpecker

That’s all it took for cider to make the transition from tramp juice to the drink of choice for hip young things across the country. Ice. Ice and a few adverts with a homely Oirish voiceover. Between 2004 and 2006, Bulmers reported a 40% increase in sales thanks to Magners Irish Cider, and all because watering down cider with ice became cool.

For turning a drink barely superior to meths into the next best thing to champers, Bulmers showed us all how powerful good marketing can be.

The Marketing Misfire

Sea Kittens – PETA (2009)

(Disclaimer: I’m not in favour of cruelty to fish, I just think PETA are idiots)

I really don’t think the twenty-something vegetarians are going to get that stoned that they want to come home and read the unintentionally funny Struwwelpeter-meets-Lemony-Snicket “Sea Kitten Stories” before their comedown.
Katy Evans-Bush – Textpixels

Fish have a bad lot, say PETA. We’re really awful to them. Not because they’re tasty and healthy, but because they’re slimy and slithery. So what better way to save the fish than to rebrand them?

Well, any way really. Drawing a cartoon fish in a cat costume and calling it a “Sea Kitten” isn’t going to stop fish being tasty, or make it any less appetising to pescavores.

The most tragic thing about the Sea Kittens campaign is that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall showed campaigners how to make people think about where their food comes from with his anti-battery chicken crusade. Wouldn’t farmed salmon swimming in their own shit have made a more effective image than this?

Not pictured - 10,000 cellmates and litres of fish urine

Katy Evans-Bush summed it up perfectly in her post on the matter: “How to use PR to make people do the opposite of what you want.” Nearly everyone that saw this either laughed so much they missed the point about overfishing and trawling, or decided they’d like haddock for tea that evening.

It’s better to be instantly forgettable than memorably foolish, as any PETA campaigner who’s suffered ridicule following this campaign will tell you.

Maybe PETA should get in touch with Bulmers’ advertising company?

With ten years of adverts to choose from, there must be other marketing misfires and masterpieces to add to the list. Let me know your thoughts by contacting me – I’ll publish the best (and worst) marketing ploys in a post later this month, with a big fat backlink to your site or blog.

Of course, if you’d just like to pick holes in my choices, you can leave a comment below.

Related posts:

1. Meet Your New Online Marketing Role Model

Photo by Gene Hunt

Yes, October is upon us and it’s that time of year again. Christmas decorations are on sale, Leeds United are on the cusp of their end of year blip, and the shortlist for the Manchester Blog Awards has been released.
As a copywriter, it’s the Best Writing on a Blog category that I’m most interested in – especially as a blog I nominated has made the shortlist. If you only add five more blogs to your RSS feed this year, add Unmemorable Title and any four of these.

The Manchester Blog Awards 2009 Shortlist

My Shitty Twenties

My nomination for this category was My Shitty Twenties, the blog of a  single mother, writer, librarian and travel consultant who’s probably the most engaging blogger within a thirty mile radius. Showing the stereotype of the lazy, benefit claiming Salford scrounger up for what it really is, MS20s balances the worries and trials of a working mum with genuine and incisive humour.

Santiago’s Dead Wasp

Santiago’s Dead Wasp is the blog of poet Matt Dalby. This is going to sound like a cop out, but I don’t think I can sum up just what his blog is or does. There’s some truly amazing writing on there – technically and creatively, so it’s well worth you just clicking that link and making your mind up. The photographs aren’t half bad either.

Dave Hartley’s Weblog

Dave Hartley’s Weblog may have the most boring title on this list, but it’s up there in terms of writing flair. A collection of short works, DHW can suck you in and keep you reading for hours. It also has the best opening line to anything, ever:

‘I don’t believe in fantasy,’ said the Seagull to the Potato

I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car

The whole “acerbic captions over strange pictures” thing has been done to death, yet the quality of dark humour on show here never fails to raise a smile. Richard Vivmeister Hirst is either a comic genius, or… Well, I don’t want to consider the frankly un-nerving alternative. He does live fairly locally after all.

big city, little girl

I’ve not read enough bc,lg to make an informed judgement on the final blog on the best writing list, but there’s enough good poetry on display here to make sure that as soon as I finish this post, I’ll be settling down with a drink to get some reading done. And I suggest that you all do the same.

Don’t forget to bookmark the Manchester Blog Awards, or follow them on Twitter. And while you’re there, add me too.

Share your thoughts on the MBA Shortlist in the comments section.

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1. Four Things to Celebrate This Manchester Day
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3. Are The Evils of Modern Football Ruining Your Blog?