Ah, the Great Eclipse of 2017. Afternoon meetings were delayed, eyes were potentially damaged, and brands lined up to get in on the discussion with what I’m just going refer to as “eclipsevertising.”
In my first post of what I hope will be many on this little advertising blog, I thought I’d round up a few brands who had especially good or bad days trying to get in the eclipse conversation on Twitter. Enjoy!
The Winners
Moon Pie
Look, the Moon Pie brand - which turns 100 in 2017 - probably doesn’t count on “big social media wins” contributing much to its marketing mix. However, with a once-every-100-years eclipse on the horizon, this must have just been in the cards. With its two-word tweet-slap of the rival Hostess, Moon Pie easily won the day.
Putting aside that Hostess’ joke zombie of a tweet (it looks like what I know a joke should look like… It sounds like what a joke should sound like… Yet, it… it is simply DEVOID of all things humor) all the credit in the world to Moon Pies here. It prepared for its moment in the partially-blocked sun and didn’t fold under pressure. It’s clever, makes a rival brand look lame, and got 7,000+ Retweets in the process. Considering their pinned tweet from April has a whopping 58 retweets, I’d say the eclipse was a good day for them at the office.
NASA
Someone was going to make this joke on Twitter. In fact, I’m sure MANY people made this joke on Twitter. But there’s something about it coming from NASA. If for no other reason, the “dad joke” level of satisfaction that I’m sure it garnered throughout its office just makes me enjoy the tweet even more.
In addition to being clever, you’ve got to hand it to NASA that they also knew the spotlight would be on them and managed to deliver. Actually, they expanded that spotlight pretty damn big, 190,000+ retweets and 384,000+ likes for what is essentially a genuine and un-ironic science pun. In a post-Big Bang Theory world, this should be celebrated.
The Losers
The Simpsons
Let’s just get this one out of the way. I love The Simpsons. As something of a superfan, I tend to agree (and worry) with some who say our constant over-quoting of everything “Bort,” “Cromulent,” and “You look like you have something to say, DOOO YOOU???” are turning us into those kids in high school who were always silly-walking and over-quoting Monty Python. Point is, we never waste a chance to fully utilize a solid show reference.
I say all this to underscore that An. Eclipse. Reference. From. The. Simpsons. MUST. Be. This:
C’mon Simpsons, know your target demographic and remind them why they like you! Do they want to see Marge, rather unsettlingly, burn her eyes to a crisp? Or, do they want Nimoy, the monorail, and a reason to fit “I call the big one bitey” into a conversation? With only 1,300 retweets, and a perfect reminder of how odd the show is these days, hopefully it learns its lesson by the next eclipse… which it will probably still be on-air to see.
Oreo
Oreo changed the game with its famous “You Can Still Dunk In The Dark” tweet during the Super Bowl in 2013. Because this tasty cookie had the only social media team that knew how to monetize a blackout at the Super Bowl, now every brand from The Simpsons to Moon Pies have strategies drawn up to (attempt to) properly acknowledge/eulogize/commemorate/joke about big days on the calendar. So, Oreo surely has something up it’s sleeve on the day of the Great Eclipse, right???
Nope.
There are a few problems here. Let’s unpack them one by one:
- No way around it, Oreos. You froze, dropped the ball, plain and simple. If you didn’t, it looks like you did. Like I just said, you invented this game, you have to at least try SOMETHING. Otherwise, it’s just not a good look.
- Building off the last point, it looks extra bad that Oreos couldn’t formulate something because it LITERALLY HAS AN ECLIPSE AS ITS LOGO.
And no, this wasn’t a subtle nod they did for the eclipse, it’s been on their branding for months. Big-time fail.
3. August 21 was eclipse day. It’s all everyone talked about. So why, Why, WHY would the branding team at Oreo pick this same day to announce a partnership with Google and Android? In terms of branding, getting your cookie brand as the name of an operating system that tons of people will be seeing as they download it is actually really cool! That’s the kind of brand thinking that sunk Hydrox! Why compete against a bigger story that every type of news/blog/media will be covering when you could just join it? Could it have been Google’s idea to announce on this day, and Oreo just got taken along for the ride? Yeah, maybe. But guess what, Google also joined in on the eclipse conversation, so it doesn’t look as single-minded…
I know there are countless other examples of good and bad example of #eclipsevertising I didn’t mention here. I’ll leave that to you! Let me know what else you saw out there, and what you think of this blog!
