I’ve had a long running interest in the recent Kraft “Happy Sandwich” campaign, particularly their MySpace page and video contest (see the “marketing” section of my archives for all the posts). Well now the Kraft Happy Sandwich campaign video contest has come to an end and Kraft has selected a winner. Chris Gianelloni from Metairie, Louisiana produced the winning video, titled “Tanning Bed.” He wins $50,000 and gets to see his video made into a national commercial in 2008. Congrats Chris.
But the video itself, while mildly amusing, is somewhat strange. It features a male grilled cheese in a bikini bottom getting in a tanning bed. When the sandwich gets out of the tanning bed, he has a bit of a dirty smirk on his face as he pulls his bikini bottom out a couple inches and looks down at the area where (if he was a person, not a sandwich) his genitals would be. After looking down at his genitals, he glances back up at the camera and makes a big, dirty, smile. Don’t believe me? Watch the winning video for yourself:
Editorial comment before we move on: let me just say that I never, ever, ever want to have to imagine my grilled cheese sandwich having genitals.
As if that isn’t strange enough, on MySpaceTV, where the video was posted under the title “finalist 4“, there is a spam comment that has been left on the video promoting what one can only surmise is a plug for some sort of porn site. The comment, posted on November 28th, reads as follows:
“wat’s up guys?any one out there who want to watch SEX VIDEOS, HENTAI, SEXY VIRGIN TEENS HAVING THERE FIRST TIME IN SEX & LATEST MOVIES? just click the link below!”
Uh Kraft? Why aren’t you deleting the spam comments for porn sites that people are leaving on the videos of your finalists? Do you think kids logging in to watch the Happy Sandwich finalists should have to read about “sexy virgin teens”? C’mon Kraft, don’t try and tell me you have no control over the comments being left, because these videos were re-posted as finalists by the MySpace user named “Kraft.”
Whoever is controlling that MySpace account, whether it is someone at Kraft headquarters or an internet firm you guys hired, should be deleting this porn spam from the videos the DAY it appears. The fact that this spam comment is still visible on the video of one of your finalists nearly a MONTH later is inexcusable, and shows either laziness or incompetence. This isn’t just me poking fun for a good blog post, I run these types of online campaigns for a living, and I’m baffled by the comedy of errors that have occurred during this campaign.
Over and over now I’ve thought I was done writing about the Kraft Happy Sandwich campaign. Yet time after time something has emerged for me to poke fun at. Now that a winner has been announced, Kraft executives can get busy figuring out how to make a TV commercial that appeals to children, but also features a grilled cheese sandwich with genitals.
While you’re at it Kraft executives, you might want to delete the spam for porno sites from the online videos of your finalists and your winners. Just a suggestion.
Stumble it!
9 responses so far ↓
1 Heather // Dec 24, 2007 at 2:18 am
Wasn’t the point of this marketing campaign to make people want to use Kraft cheese more? Because now I’m just going to shudder whenever I see it in the grocery store and buy whatever brand is sitting next to it…
2 shatraw // Dec 24, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Metairie, Louisiana = New Orleans = PR opportunity = “in addition to the $50,000 prize, kraft foods will donate blah blah blah to x local charity of Chris’ choice.”
bets anyone? eick, you’re going to have to keep up on this story. sorry!
3 Critic // Jan 1, 2008 at 10:57 am
Unfortunate Poor Judgment!
Where Kraft went wrong in their “Happy Sandwich” video campaign was when they elected to trust an outside media company to promote their mega-power name brand. This usually happens when corporations are not equipped in a specific department or do not trust their in-house talent to make the better judgment while protecting the reputation of their brand.
When we think of Kraft we think of a family-household brand. The bikini grilled cheese character is not a family-friendly-icon for Kraft. The animation has merit and the character is well rounded one but not a best suited as a family symbol for Kraft. It’s weak and lacks potential.
It’s very possible the only real audience Kraft reached with this contest was a small percentage of Myspace members and visitors. Some visitors will never return and more than likely didn’t vote when they realized they had to become members of Myspace. It was poor judgment to have mixed Kraft and Myspace. It was the wrong audience. Kraft should have teamed up with YouTube or someone similar. Mixing Myspace and Kraft together is like putting a kindergarten class to watch an Opera.
The effects of poor judgment are not immediately realized. Kraft could still dodge a bullet with this campaign if they choose to not air the commercial on national television. It was in their rules that if they chose to, they didn’t really have to make a commercial out out the winning video because they said, “maybe” it would get made into a commercial. In the end it’s sad because if I had worked really hard to build a name like Kraft, I wouldn’t want to be at the mercy of, “maybe” to protect the brand.
4 Kraft Happy Sandwich Update: Still Hawking Porn | So Good // Jan 2, 2008 at 6:03 am
[...] ago I noted that the winning video for Kraft’s Happy Sandwich campaign featured a sandwich looking at his genitals. The damage on that front is done, as the choice of a video winner has already been named. But in [...]
5 Kraft Finally Figures Out How to Delete Spam | So Good // Jan 4, 2008 at 4:55 pm
[...] December 23rd, I noted that the winning video in the Kraft Happy Sandwich campaign displayed a spam comment for a porn site. On January 2nd, I once again pointed out that the spam comment was STILL there, and had been [...]
6 nikkibabeyxo // Jan 8, 2008 at 10:52 pm
alllright well hes not looking at his “genitals” he looks down at his tan so get that right and its not a “dirty smirk” hes smiling because his tan,
and on Myspace people dont randomly post hose comments its called “Phising” and its happened to plenty of people, and its when someone hacks into your account and it does that stuff, so dont say im gonna shudder when i see this, and i never wanna eat that again, cause thats messed up, it wasnt dirty message, in fact i love it, cause its very good, and i congradulate chris! GOOD JOB!
7 Eick // Jan 9, 2008 at 11:37 am
I understand the phishing that goes on with MySpace. However, whoever controls the MySpace page was easily able to delete the porn spam as soon as they saw this blog post and became aware of it. If whoever runs their MySpace page had just been checking in once every day or two it would have been deleted right away instead of being visible for over a month…total negligence as far as I’m concerned.
8 all internal videos // Jan 19, 2008 at 11:27 pm
all internal videos…
all internal videos…
9 spicer // Sep 17, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Oh, let’s all just calm down. The sandwich is showing off its new tan line, not peeking at its winky.
The shocked responses say much more about the writers than the silly little Kraft ad. The grilled cheese has no bulge, and is innocent of any sexual innuendo.
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