"Thinking Too Hard" essay: Zeitgeist brands
What's a Zeitgeist brand? Find out in this essay – which you can listen to me read or just read on your own – from my book, "Thinking Too Hard and Rethinking Too Much: Stories and Essays from a Career in Advertising."
Sometimes it happens by accident, but it can be planned, too. Apple's 1984 TV spot, for example, played off the cultural fascination with reaching the titular year of Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel. But that was more about making an introductory splash; although it laid the groundwork for the Macintosh computer's image of a user-friendly device, the spot itself was a single-event phenomenon.
Here are two better examples.
Although Tang was launched in 1959, it took a launch of a different kind before the orange-flavored breakfast drink by General Foods really took off.
After 6 years of lackluster sales, the powdered drink was chosen by NASA for the Gemini spaceflights, NASA's series of ten manned spaceflights during the years of 1965 and 1966. It was in the era of public fascination with the space program, and General Foods played up the connection at every opportunity, until the product itself was indelibly known as the orange drink of the astronauts. To a kid in the 1960s dreaming of space walks and moon exploration, Tang was one small sip for man, one giant leap closer to your heroes.
At first, the commercials were as serious as a school science film using copious NASA space footage, but by 1970, Tang was courting kids with a kicky “moonwalk” dance and jingle:
Do the moonwalk like the astronauts
Join the space gang, drink your energy Tang
Tang is for breakfast, lunch, or after school
Tang is energizing like rocket fuel.
So if you want to do like the astronauts do
Join the space gang and do the moonwalk, too.
Of course, as public interest in space exploration waned, the halo effect that was pumping up sales of Tang also dissipated. That Tang couldn't retain the same levels of popularity based on its merits alone was probably foreshadowed in the very reason it was chosen for the astronauts. According to a NASA engineer, water that was being produced as a byproduct of the Gemini capsule's life support system was drinkable but poor-tasting. Adding Tang to the water made it more palatable.
Not exactly the most ringing endorsement for a product; it may have been a drink for astronauts, but judged on taste alone, a lot of moms and kids didn't think the watery, grainy orange concoction was much of a drink for earthlings. (The same fate would befall Pillsbury's attempt at zeitgeist-channeling, Space Food Sticks, a forerunner of today’s energy bars).
Tang is still around – a recent reformulation has replaced much of the sugar with artificial sweeteners in a bid to stay relevant in our obesity-obsessed culture – and still remembered best for its Gemini connection, but like the culture's interest in space exploration, Tang will probably never again reach such heights of popularity.
Phillip Morris introduced Virginia Slims, a spinoff of their Benson & Hedges brand, in 1968. If you are what you smoke, this slimmer, longer cigarette was as aspirational as you could get when marketing to young, professional women.
But it was the advertising campaign that really cemented the bond between the smoker and the smoked. The pros at Leo Burnett – the same people who indelibly linked Marlboro cigarettes to male ruggedness and independence – now worked similar magic with Virginia Slims. This time, instead of finding inspiration in the American West, they looked to America Now – specifically the women's liberation movement that was growing in society and awareness by the media.
The campaign’s messages of emancipation, equality, and empowerment – leavened with humor and contemporary stylishness – were epitomized by its slogan. "You've come a long way, baby." In fact, it became a cultural catch phrase, as the ads and commercials became one of the most ubiquitous expressions of the women's movement (albeit a safe, non-threatening expression, if you discount the tar and nicotine).
A typical spot began with supposedly archival footage showing turn-of-the-century women in subservient roles shamed for sneaking a cigarette, then segued into the Modern ‘70s Woman fearlessly brandishing her cancer-stick, while a full-throated men's chorus – cannily suggesting the patriarchy's approval – belted out the jingle:
You’ve come a long way, baby
to get where you got to today
You’ve got your own cigarette, now, baby
You’ve come a long, long way
As perhaps the fate of any product so closely aligned with a cultural moment, Virginia Slims would follow roughly the same arc. After growing in market share throughout the 1970s, Virginia Slims started receding in the late '80s in the face of new competition from the Capri and Misty cigarettes – whose focus on sex appeal and sexual power that had become the new expression of independence for young women put them more in sync with the shifting zephyrs of the zeitgeist.
Virginia Slims came a long way, but now the torch (okay, the cigarette) was passed.
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You can read more excerpts from my book here.
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