I’m a fan of savvy and witty marketing campaigns. Some of my more recent favorites include: The Most Interesting Man in the World (great TV spots!); GEICO’s satirical television campaign with dry cameo appearances (James Lipton!); Samsung’s Extreme Sheep LED Art; the Truth Campaign’s television commercials; BMW’s “Expression of Joy” spot for the Z4 Roadster (not to mention the extensive behind-the-scenes videos); and Give It a Ponder (again, James Lipton!). I just came upon this recent Heineken campaign, involving Italian soccer fans and an important match between Real Madrid and AC Milan, and found the product disappointing. I genuinely enjoyed the use of the premise of misdirection, but I could not help but feel the success of the outcome was hinged greatly upon the detriment of the entertainment value provided by classical music and musicians. I realize not everyone derives a sense of enjoyment from attending a classical music performance (especially when a major soccer match is occurring), but I cannot help but feel a large part of that lack of enjoyment is a result of a lack of experience. Those that have not experienced live classical music will understandably take little interest in what happens. However, part of me feels the exploitation of musical inexperience for the sake of advertising simply promotes a narrow-minded global stereotype of classical music as “boring”.
Here is the Soccer v. String Quartet matchup:
Could the world of classical music sue Heineken for libel and defamation of character? I think so. What do you think?
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