- Clover has started selling milk in blue bottles as part of a new campaign to "refresh" its brand.
- As part of its ad campaign, the company released a video with a strange, high-pitched blue man.
- Social media was puzzled, amused, and horrified in equal measure.
- For more articles, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
The dairy manufacturer Clover has started selling its fresh milk in blue bottles, as part of a new campaign to "refresh" its brand.
“We opted for blue as it is the Clover corporate brand colour, and since fresh milk is the core of Clover – it makes sense to consistently drive the Clover values and identity through our fresh milk products,” says the company.
The company says it wants “to inject some excitement and generate talk-ability in and around the fresh milk category with the ultimate aim to make fresh milk relevant again.”
It has certainly succeeded in generating "talk-ability", but perhaps not in the way it may have wished.
After inviting social media users to guess why Clover went with the colour blue, it tweeted a curious video over the weekend.
The video features a male painted completely blue, who riffs on some of the answers in a weird high-pitched voice:
Why are Clover Milk bottles blue now? #WhyCloverBlue pic.twitter.com/8c68RvEUfB
— Clover (@CloverWayBetter) July 3, 2020
The video - which has been viewed almost 158,000 times - was roundly slated on social media:
I can’t believe this passed more than one person to approve and think it was a great idea ?? pic.twitter.com/Q3MnC1cPZK
— OH LOOK...Squirrel (@Travesty_Kruger) July 4, 2020
Ad agencies really aren't coping with working from home. https://t.co/APdZBlW0uc
— Phlynt Phlossy ©®™ (@PhilChard) July 4, 2020
Which agency did this campaign? What was the brief? Who signed this off?! I have so many questions about this #WhyCloverBlue https://t.co/EEeiwb30Ic
— Ash (@ashish_za) July 4, 2020
1981 called, they want their ad campaign back.
— 5andr0 (@SandroMendace) July 4, 2020
A few users also complained of the nightmare-inducing potential of the high-pitched blue Clover man.
I drank from the new blue bottle and woke up like this!! ?? #WhycloverBlue pic.twitter.com/gzBi56Fvbh
— Je Suis??? (@True_Thapz2) July 4, 2020
A number of users asked the company to let go of its marketing agency, and offered to put together a better ad campaign for them for free.
But others think it may have been marketing genius:
Clover's Bluebottle campaign is social media genius. Loathe it or hate it, people are talking about it till they're blue in the face. Probably cost a few hundred bucks to make, & will probably be pulled when Smurf lawyers learn about it. A case-study in cost-effective branding.
— Gus Silber (@gussilber) July 5, 2020
Say all you want, because everybody now knows that clover bottles are blue.
— Ryan (@PaikinAndEggs) July 5, 2020
(Compiled by Edward-John Bottomley)
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