Some ad exec came up with the brilliant idea to invent a country for Pepsi drinkers. In this land, the young and hip chill and drink Pepsi to their heart’s delight. What is the name of this place you ask? It’s Youngistaan; which literally translates to land of the young or young land.
I have a couple problems with Youngistaan.
To begin, this is certainly not the work of Don Draper. Youngistaan is the epitome of our slide into idiocracy. Why do advertisers suddenly feel compelled to event words and now countries to sell their products? Take for example recent beer slogans, “The coldest tasting beer” and “drinkability.” Holy hell Bud Light, “drinkability,” is that really the best you can do?
Youngistaan is drinkability bad. Let’s say nothing about the taste of our beverage but simply attach our label to youth and invent a country while we're at it. For all I know, this ad campaign has been massively successful in India, but if it has, it certainly doesn’t reflect well on India’s consumers.
While I could certainly continue on this critique I want to bring up another point. In an increasingly flat world I think companies have to be aware that their ads designed for one country, or a select demographic, will easily percolate into other markets.
With that in mind, I have to wonder what Bible Belt, rural or redneck America would think of Youngistaan. When Americans think about “stans” we think of Afghanistan and Pakistan – which together are commonly referred to as Jihadistan. Maybe I’m too sensitive about this or I’m reading too much into it, but I can’t help but think Pepsi could have used better word choice.
What I’m getting to is this. After watching these commercials and seeing the Youngistaan slogan literally hundreds of times, I don’t associate Pepsi with hip and youthful culture. Instead, I think about the Taliban setting up IEDs in Afghanistan or indoctrinating a new group of recruits at madrassas in Waziristan.
So, I want to hear from you. What do you think of Youngistaan? How do you think red-state America would react?
I think America would react exactly as you think it would. They would be appalled in record time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't agree that ads percolate into other markets easily, and especially not for America. I feel MOST Americans (the ~80% without a college degree plus some) are closed minded, think that American culture is "the only way", and don't have exposure to anything beyond TV news channels and viral Youtube videos.
So as appalling to these Americans as it would be, I don't think Youngistaan fails on the politically-correct level.
PS -have you seen my Facebook picture? Look familiar?
Of course the sad part about this is that the ad is in no way offensive, it just automatically triggers touchy word association for Americans that I don't think you can do much about -- no matter how open minded, or well read you are.
ReplyDeleteMy point about ads percolating into other markets is supported by your comment about viral videos. All it takes is some American in India to post the ad on Youtube and gave it a nasty label. That's a PR problem no one at Pepsi wants to deal with.
And yes, excellent use of the sport coat for The Legwarmmers. I was there in spirit.