Durex and the Toy Story - Careful with your humour
Using the popular trend to make advertisement has also become a trend for marketers. People would not forget how Nissan and its agency made Deadmau5 fell in love with their GT-R, using Twitter to troll Ferrari in 2015 (Renfree 2015). Nowadays, Durex can be said as one of the most successful brands with tracking trends fast and use them in their social media ad. However, it might not seem like every ad will get a positive reaction from the audience.
Durex - so successful in catching trend:
Durex - the most selling condom brand come from the U.K, has always been famous for its creative ad, both visuals and content. By having a facebook page with nearly 12 millions followers, it is definitely a proof for Durex’s success in advertising in the social media field. They really get the idea of how to use popular issues, trends that the society is concerned about to create content with semiotics meanings that will attract its audience. For instance, it will be a shame if I did not mention Vietnam team’s ad about DPRK–USA Hanoi Summit Vietnam - a picture of two condoms as missiles with the message “Ngăn đạn lạc. Vì hòa bình” (Preventing stray bullet. For peace) with 31,000 likes and more than 5000 comments on Facebook.
Figure 1: Reproduce from VnExpress, 2019
The following ad is another example which shows how fast and trendy Durex is with tracking trend. The biggest condom brand in the world has brought up a humorous ad which following “World Cup” in 2018. Looking at the ad closely, bonus with some imagination, Durex really knows how to make things seem irrelevant, relevant with their products.
Figure 2: Reproduce from Lostbird, 2018
According to Clement (2019), the penetration of people actively using the social network in Vietnam is about 64 percentage in January 2019 while the number of Facebook users in Vietnam is expected to reach 45.3 million this year (Doan 2019). In addition, Durex’s target consumer is also the age range that uses the Internet the most (Toan 2014). Therefore, it can be seen that this is definitely an excellent platform for Durex to use their strengths of online marketing to approach their target consumer, and they also have used it effectively.
However, no one is perfect. Recently, Durex just recently released an ad in June that might show that catching the trend fast not always help the brand receive positive interaction.
Figure 3: Reproduce from LinkedIn Slideshare, 2015
Is following and catching trend fast always bringing positive results?
Durex always creates ads that have a fun vibe in their content, little bit semiotics for some imagination. Most of the time, they always went viral and was shared everywhere on social media with compliments for Durex marketing team. Recently, Durex has released an Ad related to Toy Story 4, a movie which is being released in cinemas. Unlike other ads, this ad has created some controversy in some of their target audience.
Figure 4: Adopted from Facebook, 2019
In this ad, Durex has used Buzz light year, the main cartoon character in Disney’s Toy Story series. However, they change the shape of his helmet into the shape of the condom, together with the headline that includes Buzz lightyear famous quote “to infinity and beyond!”
Why Durex use this trend?
Figure 5: Reproduce from Insidethemagic, 2019
There is criticism around these remade-cartoons but then aim to target the millennial, not the children, Toy Story is no exception. However, it is not the case here. I agree with the point of view of Beecher (2019), that Disney and Pixar are released movies which might just target audience which is somehow lie in Durex’s target consumer age range. Therefore, it is understandable why it is relevant for Durex’s action of choosing Toy Story as a topic for their ad’s content.
Sometimes being funny is not always a good move.
This ad has also gone viral with 15,000 reactions and get to be shared thousands of times. Although there are still lots of likes and compliments for Durex’s humour, for this time, Durex has received much more angry reactions and negative comments than other ads. In the comment section, those comments that refer to deleting this ad received lots of likes and reactions.
Figure 6: Adopted from Facebook, 2019
For these audiences, including myself, this kind of ad is an objective that ruins our childhood’s memory. The cartoon has always been an essential part of our childhood, and Buzz Lightyear has always been a character that represents power, bravery and willingness to sacrifice for friends. Therefore, it is so uncomfortable referring a familiar, naive cartoon movie to something that sexually. Some audience has been so annoyed that they even create a post on “Thanks, I hate this ad” category in Reddit, which showed that there are more than 404,000 people who hate this ad.
Figure 7: Adopted from Reddit, 2019
According to Wijaya (2012), AIDA model is used to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement. Looking through the AIDA’s model, all Durex ads might create high awareness and interest toward the brands which might create their desire to buy the product, however, it didn't make the target will take action to buy it. For this time, on the other hand, this ad even creates a negative reaction from the audience, which might affect Durex’s image in these consumers or potential consumers. Therefore, it could be a lesson for Durex to notice and to be more careful next time when using a trend to create an ad.
References:
Abell, B 2019, ‘Dad more excited than daughter to meet “Toy Story” characters at Disneyland’, image, Insidethemagic, viewed 20 July 2019, <https://insidethemagic.net/2019/07/disneyland-dad-excited-meet-characters-ba1/>.
Chim Ku Đô 2018, ‘Durex Việt Nam quảng cáo ăn theo mùa World Cup, thiên hạ 'ngả mũ' bái phục’, image, Lost Bird, viewed 20 July 2019, <https://lostbird.vn/giai-tri-cung-lac/giai-tri/durex-viet-nam-quang-cao-an-theo-mua-world-cup-thien-ha-nga-mu-bai-phuc-281269.html>.
Clement, J 2019, ‘Active social network penetration in selected countries as of January 2019’, Statista, data file, viewed 19 July 2019, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/282846/regular-social-networking-usage-penetration-worldwide-by-country/>.
Dang Khoa 2019, ‘Brands launch ads to exploit Trump-Kim summit’, image, VNEpress, viewed 19 July 2019, <https://e.vnexpress.net/news/trump-kim-summit-vietnam/brands-launch-ads-to-exploit-trump-kim-summit-3887553.html>.
Doan, E.Z. 2019, Number of Facebook users in Vietnam from 2017 to 2023 (in millions), Statista, data file, viewed 19 July 2019, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/490478/number-of-vietnam-facebook-users/>.
Dung Tri 2015, ‘Vietnam Digital Landscape 2015’, Linkedin SlideShare, viewed 18 July 2019, <https://www.slideshare.net/tinhanhvy/vietnam-digital-landscape-2015>.
Durex 2019, ‘Durex’, image, Facebook, viewed 19 July 2019, <https://www.facebook.com/Durex.Id/photos/a.287091211332644/2863437290364677/?type=3&theater>.
Jimmy Toan 2014, ‘Phân tích người dùng Facebook tại Việt Nam’, Jimmytoan, viewed 21 July 2019, <https://jimmytoan.com/phan-tich-nguoi-dung-facebook-tai-viet-nam/>.
Renfree, M 2015, ‘How Nissan and its Agency Got Deadmau5 to Fall in Love with the GT-R’, PRNEWS, 10 September, viewed 20 July 2019, <https://www.prnewsonline.com/how-nissan-and-its-agency-got-deadmau5-to-fall-in-love-with-the-gt-r/>.
U/Solertia 2019, ‘Thanks, I hate this Durex ad’, Reddit, viewed 21 July 2019, <https://www.reddit.com/r/TIHI/comments/c7faob/thanks_i_hate_this_durex_ad/>.
Wijaya, B. S. 2012, ‘The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising’, UniversitasBarkie, Jakarta.
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