Viral Marketing (RACISM)

[sparechange]

Hello! Just had a fresh idea in my head & wanted to hear some thoughts!

Do you think it would be a bad idea to include racist humor in a marketing video? Yeh yeh, sounds like insanity but hear me out, sure people have different styles of humor like Louis CK or Dave Chapelle, but what if we had a funny poke at a certain demographic that would actually feature the person race being targeted?

For example, everyone knows the typical joke about Asians and driving. If you had a simple product, showcasing Asian people in a car driving around and making jokes to each other in a demonstration marketing video (lets just say the product is GPS mounted on the windshield and the said Asian people are struggling to navigate around so the solution to their problem is using the GPS)

Is that social suicide? I feel like a funny video like that would spread like wildfire on Instagram & Youtube, netting tens of millions of views online and a % of front end sales?

Crazy?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[100k]

Make a funny one about jews and rhinoplasty. Let us know how that works out for you.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpy4VM-qH5s


Personally, I say you're walking into murky waters, but you might be able to pull it off - if you're lucky.

 

[TinyTim]

Is this a serious post?

 

[sparechange]

Is this a serious post?

100% more serious than the potential type 2 diabetes I might actually have.

Thinking outside of the box, and might be delusional enough to believe it has some potential. The problem is different people might laugh like myself, make fun of Canadians and I won't really have a problem with it, some may take offense though which could potentially alienate a % of the market share but potentially netting a sale from the laughing crew.

In the example above, lets say I'm marketing the Garmin GPS, and you have a group of Asian people driving around totally lost. One person pulls out a Garmin product and saves the day with this magical product. At the end of the video/commercial/ad, a buy now option pops up (phone number or buy now button)

That video alone would set you apart from all the other companies marketing a GPS and tens of millions of people would be talking about a ''racist'' video, furthering a huge shitstorm of discussion about the controversial video that XXX company made. Then you have the media or whatever blogger talking about you & it grows and grows.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TinyTim]

Good luck with your "be racist to make a sale" goal of 2020.

For an established business, this is a terrible idea. If you have a loan shark knocking on your door, this may be your only choice. There are ways to conduct a viral marketing campaign without offence. I remember the Dollar Shave Club did very well with theirs.

 

[Ismail941]

I think you meant to say that Asians are not good at being techie
It can be anybody
I think you meant stereotype, not racism

 

[broswoodwork]

There's like a hyper specific way of doing what you're talking about (think all in the family or always sunny in philadelphia), where, in theory, the audience is supposed to be laughing AT the racist/ sexist/ whateverist person. Even that lands in very controversial territory, and doesn't age well.

I vote crazy, given there's a billion other ways to market a product.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DeletedUser0287]

This is bound to backfire

 

[Isaunders]

Hello! Just had a fresh idea in my head & wanted to hear some thoughts!

Do you think it would be a bad idea to include racist humor in a marketing video? Yeh yeh, sounds like insanity but hear me out, sure people have different styles of humor like Louis CK or Dave Chapelle, but what if we had a funny poke at a certain demographic that would actually feature the person race being targeted?

For example, everyone knows the typical joke about Asians and driving. If you had a simple product, showcasing Asian people in a car driving around and making jokes to each other in a demonstration marketing video (lets just say the product is GPS mounted on the windshield and the said Asian people are struggling to navigate around so the solution to their problem is using the GPS)

Is that social suicide? I feel like a funny video like that would spread like wildfire on Instagram & Youtube, netting tens of millions of views online and a % of front end sales?

Crazy?

While I admire your boldness and unconventional thought process, my first gut reaction was “This is awful!” and I don’t believe this would be a good approach. There are better ways to make money than to sink to that level.

 

[Lucky Lu]

You willl have traction: YES
You will make sales: I doubt it.

People tend not to want to be associated with things that are being destroyed on social media and that is what would happen with the company when you disseminate something even remotely possible to be taken badly.

Would love to see it succeed though. Cheering for you.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MoreVolume]

Oh boy...

 

[sparechange]

Well that got shot down pretty quick!

 

[Einfamilienhaus]

Thinking outside of the box, and might be delusional enough to believe it has some potential. The problem is different people might laugh like myself, make fun of Canadians and I won't really have a problem with it

I think you show lack of empathy what really can hurt others.

The point is your idea on Controversial Marketing based on cultural stereotypes is Old School Marketing. Back in the days people had to write letters and sent them to your office to show you how much they hated your commercial. Today everybody has access to the internet and they can destroy your reputation on Twitter and Co easily in 2 minutes. If you have more bad luck you will become the Hot Topic on your local News Channel based on the Sh*t Storm on all the Social Media platforms you give access for the public.

The today's Controversial Marketing works different. This kind of Marketing makes more money by trying to put the minority in the positive light. Like let 2 women drink from one Coca Cola bottle with drinking straws. You will trigger two groups of people. The one who feel supported or attacked on their believe system by your ad.

Dont discriminate minorities. Work with them.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ninjakid]

This is a terrible idea. Did you not see what happened to H&M over an ad that was merely perceived as racist?

For example, everyone knows the typical joke about Asians and driving. If you had a simple product, showcasing Asian people in a car driving around and making jokes to each other in a demonstration marketing video (lets just say the product is GPS mounted on the windshield and the said Asian people are struggling to navigate around so the solution to their problem is using the GPS)

Do you even find this funny? I don't. It's not even groundbreaking humour, it's just a dumb stereotype seems like a cheap attempt at making a joke.

Louis CK and Dave Chapelle are comedy masters. You have to be pretty arrogant to think you can just rip off their comedy and make it work for you. So far you're off to a bad start.

 

[Kevin88660]

Sounds like a quick way to get banned on the marketing platform like youtube and instalgram.

let me give you a safer idea if you want to achieve viral marketing through mocking at someone. Pick President Donald Trump.

1) You are not targeting race/religion/gender/sexual orientation
2) You are leveraging on him being a celeb and a hot topic
3) Plenty of people actually hate him

 

[Deleted50669]

Remember who owns the marketing vehicles; bleeding heart liberals

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[G-Man]

Depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Ryan Holiday has some pretty good examples of purposely offending people to achieve viral transmission of an ad on a budget.

Unless being obnoxious is a core part of your brand I probably wouldn’t recommend it. The internet remembers forever.

I think in general your persuasion game has to be next level strong to be able to consistently turn offensiveness into a pro. For the other 99.9% of us, probably nothing good can come from it.

 

[Kevin88660]

Remember who owns the marketing vehicles; bleeding heart liberals

Much higher risk of unintended consequence than pissing off liberals.

If the OP really did a marketing video that cracked a racist joke on Asians, all it takes is for his competitor to copy the video and smear it with translations that make the video 10x more offensive and put it on Asian language forums.

Forget about the business, very soon OP will worry about receiving death threats.

There are hundred millions of Asian internet users living in Asian countries and they do not know English well.

 

[sparechange]

I think you show lack of empathy what really can hurt others.

The point is your idea on Controversial Marketing based on cultural stereotypes is Old School Marketing. Back in the days people had to write letters and sent them to your office to show you how much they hated your commercial. Today everybody has access to the internet and they can destroy your reputation on Twitter and Co easily in 2 minutes. If you have more bad luck you will become the Hot Topic on your local News Channel based on the Sh*t Storm on all the Social Media platforms you give access for the public.

The today's Controversial Marketing works different. This kind of Marketing makes more money by trying to put the minority in the positive light. Like let 2 women drink from one Coca Cola bottle with drinking straws. You will trigger two groups of people. The one who feel supported or attacked on their believe system by your ad.

Dont discriminate minorities. Work with them.

The 2 women drinking from a coke bottle is the type of reaction I'm looking for, and what I'd be trying to achieve, triggering a huge reaction online and quickly explode either good or bad.

I was thinking of doing some similar sketches for an ad (short IG/FB clip) like Chapelles show I.E the Clayton Bigsby episode. Of course not as vulgar, but perhaps people wouldn't appreciate it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Xeon]

As an Asian, I personally wouldn't be offended if I see such an ad. Tbh, I never understand where the "asians are bad at driving" thing came from. Maybe there are more asian-related car accidents in the US per state?

The first thing I would think of, if I see only Asians in an ad, is that the company selling the product is from Asia. Also, I doubt such a video like you mention will even go viral. It's not "explicit" enough, making it in "not-there-nor-here" category aka mediocre. Unless your target market consist of people of X race who love to see Asians looking stupid and get a high from that, the idea won't fly. But then FB and Google might take down your ads even before any viewers complain about it.....

You can probably explore other ideas like the car getting chased by a ghost / monster (hinting at it indirectly in the video via visual/sound effects instead of actual thing) and the GPS saves them (e.g: takes them out of the infinite loop in the location). And in the opening scenes of the ad, you can attract attention by making it just like a ghost movie trailer, with the voice overs etc (good cheap ones on Peopleperhour and Fiverr).

 

[sparechange]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e5xbof0kZE


Here's an awesome example of something I'm shooting for. A group of white people talking like Jamaicans, its been well received in fact.

Why Cries of Racism Won't Sink Volkswagen's Super Bowl Ad

For Volkswagen, one of the most celebrated Super Bowl advertisers of recent years, it's been a tough 24 hours. After the company released its 2013 Super Bowl spot (posted below) on Monday morning—showing a white Minnesota office worker speaking like a happy Jamaican—it was met with mostly...

www.adweek.com

??????????

 

[Roli]

Hello! Just had a fresh idea in my head & wanted to hear some thoughts!

Do you think it would be a bad idea to include racist humor in a marketing video? Yeh yeh, sounds like insanity but hear me out, sure people have different styles of humor like Louis CK or Dave Chapelle, but what if we had a funny poke at a certain demographic that would actually feature the person race being targeted?

For example, everyone knows the typical joke about Asians and driving. If you had a simple product, showcasing Asian people in a car driving around and making jokes to each other in a demonstration marketing video (lets just say the product is GPS mounted on the windshield and the said Asian people are struggling to navigate around so the solution to their problem is using the GPS)

Is that social suicide? I feel like a funny video like that would spread like wildfire on Instagram & Youtube, netting tens of millions of views online and a % of front end sales?

Crazy?

Hmm, if you are talking about out and out racism, then sure, you'll probably get sales from other racists. However if you're talking about poking fun at a harmless stereotype about a group that DO NOT usually experience racism, then you've got a chance I suppose.

For instance a joke around "white men can't jump" great, most people will find it funny regardless of their ethnicity.

A joke about "black men can't take care of their kids" or "Jews have big noses" and you'll get the negative response you deserve.

Tough to really comment without actually seeing an example.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Stargazer]

Nothing wrong with some humour in an Advert if it makes the point so I would agree with you there.

In the UK for example, beer companies use it effectively to get market penetration.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtwkDGlpWJk


However your idea just seems to be:

1) People in car get lost. (Does it really matter who the drivers and passengers are?)

2) People in car use SatNav and now are no longer lost.

That is more of a new product to market campaign; so in the field of SatNavs is about 20 years out of date.

By the way the VW Ad is rubbish.

It is not offensive but it is also pointless. Some dimwits idea of'Hey guys I have a great idea'

VW US sales dropped. From 407,704 (2013) down to 366,970 (2014) - a 10% drop, then continued falling in subsequent years too.

Awesome, well received (your words) and a complete failure?

Dan

 

[DragoonDB]

It's probably an unnecessary gamble. I'm not one to much care about everyone's sensitivities, especially with the rise of victim mentality and SJWs; but to know I may have to endure listening to the grievances of these groups is not something I'd willingly do - unless that was my desired result. Besides, benefit/value communication is going to be stronger and longer lasting (versus shock value).

My other concern (or, more likely, my wish) is that companies stop apologizing to these groups. If you blatantly crossed the line, that's one thing. But can we please stop saying "sorry" based on any John or Jane Doe that feels offended? Maybe it's a naive hope, but I'd love to see more companies take stands against these people and give them a good old "f*** off".

 

[AA1980]

I remember the Dollar Shave Club did very well with theirs.

@TinyTim I loved their ad! Never bought their products though..

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kung Fu Steve]

Business is race, sex, religion, and colorblind.

Business is business.... and business is inclusive.

You should be learning how to build rapport with people, not shatter it.

 

[100k]

Business is race, sex, religion, and colorblind.

Business is business.... and business is inclusive.

You should be learning how to build rapport with people, not shatter it.

Sure, business is business. I'm sure he gets that.

He's just trying to find a way to make content that goes viral - content that is shareable, that's remarkable, that's sensational, or as MJ puts it content that is "productocracy".

Any tips on how to create viral content for his audience ?

 

[Roli]

Business is race, sex, religion, and colorblind.

Business is business.... and business is inclusive.

You should be learning how to build rapport with people, not shatter it.

I imagine you sitting cross legged on the side of a mountain somewhere, to the sound of wooden pipes, whilst saying this

#Confucius

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Fox]

When it comes to sales best to stick with what is proven and tested.

I can't think of a single success racist ad campaign.
I can think of lots of unsuccess attempts though that went down in flames.

There are 100s of other approaches that are way less risky that would get a much better and reliable ROI.

Could it work? Maaaaaaaybe.
Is it worth taking the risk with your own business? No.

*Also unlike any other approach if it doesn't work it will have done damage to your personal reputation.
No one says "oh there is that guy that lost money on FB ads", they will say "oh there is that racist dude" through.

I couldn't think of more needlessly risky business move in the current political environment.

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

I’m gonna go against the grain and say this depends entirely on the product you’re selling, and the expectations set for your brand.

Where giant corporations get in trouble is they brand themselves as inclusive, yet their ads are perceived as racist. There’s a disconnect which causes the outrage.

Say you’re selling American flag pants...most likely your target market is conservatives with American Pride.

Here’s your controversial ad: A man wearing the pants walks to the Starbucks bathroom, sees signs that say “Gay”, “Queer”, “Non-Binary”, “Gender-Fluid”.

Then increasingly more ridiculous ones like “Fish”, “Attack Helicopter”, “Michael Jackson”.

He instead walks into the bathroom labeled “American”.

Roll credits.

Offensive to some, relatable to many.

And as the outrage grows, your market only wants to support you more to piss off the crybabies.