Hornitos Tequila Ad Gone Wrong: The Importance of Getting a Female Perspective

As a feminist and an advertiser, I had to weigh in on this ad. Here’s the link if you haven’t already seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RqUa3Q_W2k

The ad is about two twin brothers.  While Twin A is out of town, Twin B poses as Twin A and is about to get it on with his brothers girlfriend. Then the narrator says “Hornitos, purer than your intentions”. Funny premise, right?  Well, ask a rape victim if this is funny and they will look you squarely in the eye and say there is nothing funny about it. And, as a result, this ad is now being bashed all over the internet and some women are P-I-S-S-E-D. By the time I caught wind of it from Ms. Magazine it had already been around the twittersphere. This national magazine got it from a Blog called ForHarriet http://goo.gl/KNlAa . Here’s a quote from the blog to give you an idea of how people are feeling:

“Not only is this a sickening wink and nod to the "boys will be boys" mindset that excuses sexual assault as a normal expression of masculinity, but put the ad in the context of a proposed GOP amendment that would have narrowed the scope of what legally constitutes rape and it's clear we're fighting against more poorly executed commercial.” 

They then go on to list the companies name and are distributing the VP’s name all over the internet.  Ouch!

I know they say no publicity is bad publicity, but that theory came out long before Twitter & Facebook existed. I can guarantee that all the publicity Hornitos is going to get as a result of being known as an advocate for rape certainly isn’t going to help their brand.  There are woman all around the world boycotting Hornitos and writing nasty hate mail as I write. 

So what went wrong?  It seemed like such a good idea at the time, right?  Obviously, when making this commercial, they should have considered all the possible implications. Whenever I write an ad, I make sure it translates correctly and doesn’t offend any potential audience.  That’s just common sense when you’re blowing gobs of money on a spot that millions of diverse people are going to see. 

Secondly, they should have gotten feedback from both men AND women….and LISTENED to it all. Having been in the industry awhile, I know ad shops are often male dominated and can have a bit of the good ol’ boy infrastructure and this is a perfect example of why that is a problem.  When it comes to any kind of advertising, both men and women should be included in the creative process.  While it was just a funny commercial to a guy, a woman with freedom of voice could have seen the other darker side of this ad.  

Shoulda, woulda, coulda,  I know.  Next time Hornitos (and everyone else) get both genders to weigh in on your ads………  You’ll produce better work and could avoid being labeled as an advocate of rape.

Leveraging Twitter to Build Customer Evangelists

I’m not going to lie, Twitter and I have historically had a love/hate relationship and as a marketer I have often questioned its value as a lead and revenue driving tool.  However, with so many raving Twitter fans, I thought I must be missing something. So, I experimented.  First I tried being funny- surely my clever sense of humor (gag) would attract a few followers.  Yeah, that got me a few fans and on a list or two, but whoopty doo- that wasn’t going to build a business.

Next I experimented with complaining about bad service as I had heard stories of companies that bent over backwards to make Twitter-complainers happy. I got about a 50% response rate as a result of my rantings.  No bending over backwards though. Yes, I was impressed that they cared enough to tweet, but that didn’t solve my problem and really only temporarily numbed the pain when my infected sore of disappointment really needed an anti-biotic.  And let’s face it; if a customer is complaining into the Twittersphere, the damage has been done- as marketer that’s when you’re thinking about apologizing, cutting your losses and taking notes for next time. The Twitter Complaint Brigade holds little value when you’re BUILDING business.

I then proceeded to mess with posting and re-tweeting, all with only a modicum of success. Twitter still wasn’t making enough of a case for me to support it as a marketer or invest so much time with it.  Then, last night, the sweet dental hygienist from my dentist’s office changed my mind.   Here’s how:

 Just by the nature of who she was, she took an interest in me as a person while in for some routine dental work.  She found me on Twitter and on occasion would send me a cute personal message in response to something I posted or follow-up on our brief conversation from the last time I was in.  So sweet that she actually remembered what we talked about!  She’s sort of become a Twitter friend.  Then last night, I told her to find me on Facebook.  She tweeted that she would and that I should come into the office.  I thought- yeah, I totally should!  What she didn’t know was that while I always received great dental work, I was thinking about moving to an office closer to my home and had been postponing my six month visit.  Of course, after this personal interaction I was thinking I would be stupid to transfer my business over distance when I could go to a dentist that provided good work and actually knew me as a person and cared about me beyond my business with them.   

It was then when it hit me, if I could replicate this organic experience as a marketer, how powerful would that be?  Twitter stocks just hit payload for me.  While Twitter is only slightly valuable to me in all the other ways I discussed, it could be invaluable when building and maintaining relationships with customers. And I’m not talking about impersonal tweet blasts that go out to everyone but meaningful, personal tweets created for them individually that are infrequently distributed at key points during the buying cycle. Depending on the size of your business, you’d only need a CRM system, time allotment for staff and you’d have to collect Twitter profiles like you do emails.  Sure it’d be a small investment, but the pay-off just might be a loyal, evangelistic customer base you could bank your money on.

 Let’s face it, customers and prospects are over-marketed, over-emailed, and over-Twittered. They are numb to our messages half of the time, leaving us licking our lips in anticipation of a measly click through.    The opportunity that Twitter gives us to communicate with our customers in a personal way that is not intrusive gives us a whole new way to build loyalty and attract new business. I’M SOLD!