I have no idea what this ad means. But I saw it in Newsweek and had to scan it onto the blog:
Seriously! I am open to anyone’s thoughts as to what this means. Here is the best I can come up with.
[In the interest of maintaining the journalistic integrity of this blog, such as it is, I must admit in my youthful days, I did eat Grape-Nuts (with yogurt).]
First, I believe this ad is, in fact, sort of a warning that accepts the science of human caused global warming. I can’t see any other explanation for the text, “Wake-Up Call.”
Second, and this is the weird part, the website NoGrapesNoNuts, while quite amusing in its own way, has nothing whatsoever to do with global warming, nor does it even have a link to this ad. So I guess the global warming stuff is just meant as an attention grabber, especially for young people, which is who the website seems targeted for. But this is the oddest attention grabber I’ve ever seen.
Third, you might see on the box “POWER from GRAINS,” which seems to be the tagline for the cereal. Yet this is also weird — or at least bizarrely coincidental from a climate perspective — the parent company, Kraft, does not support “power from grains” (i.e. corn ethanol).
Fourth, perhaps the global warming “Wake-Up Call” is meant to connect to the notion that you eat cereal when you wake up.
Fifth, who knows?
Sixth, I can’t wait for the global warming deniers to start bombarding Kraft complaints about this ad.
Seventh, kudos to the ad writers for whatever they were trying to do — although I have been watching Mad Men on AMC via the magic of On Demand, and if modern day ad men and women are anywhere near as despicable as those depicted from the early 1960s, then all I can say to them is “You should be ashamed of yourself!”
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Grape Nuts: all natural.
Grape Nuts: get back to gentle nature, not dangerous dependencies that threaten our way of life.
Grape Nuts: get back to natural things, instead of using dangerous things that threaten our way of life.
Best,
D
Joe,
This is part of an ad series with various subjects being addressed using the same “it is what it is” one two punch cadence.
I’ve seen three or four different Grape Nuts ads like this aiming at different suspect marketing phrases.
I think it is referring to the individual (and eventually collective) “a-ha”-like moment when the preponderance of what, at one time, seemed to be random, anectodal data points about a situation tips into “something isn’t right here”…
Maybe your inventory counts are off more often than usual, the cash isn’t balancing once a month, some tools went missing… Individually, each event isn’t necessarily significant, but at some point they can’t be explained unless “something isn’t right”. At that point – the wake-up call – you largely turn your attention away from the anomalous data points, and get to work on fixing things.
That’s the analogue I got out of it…
(By the way, I am half as curious as to what the ad on the image of the reverse side of the page was about… “Hello. My name is GLOBAL”????)
Well, certainly the ad is about getting people to talk about their product. The next time I am in the grocery store and walk past that product, I’ll be thinking of this post.
I had an friend in college that had straight-edge death metal band named “Wake-Up Call.” And he was a militant vegetarain, anti-evolutionist, and all around pr###. Quite a mix. Perhaps he put this out there as an anti-AGW ad. I could see that.
It’s totally your fourth option (and first). Record heat, ice caps melting, ho-hum.
Sure, there’s AGW.
Sure, it’s already a crisis.
Yes, Gore has issued a challenge to all Americans.
And sure we’re beginning to see some interesting developments.
People are letting Obama know we want a coal-free VP.
People understand they can’t take McCain seriously re anything he says, so they have to look to his record. And lo and behold. Funny how McCain calls Gore’s goal “doable” yet nothing in his record has him *doing* anything real.
And all the information is out there. There’s really not much more to say: transitioning to the new energy economy will kick start our economy, strengthen national security, help stabilize climate, and save the lives of countless.
But, Grape Nuts believes these wake-up calls have maxed out on their potential audience. For everyone else, now there’s Grape Nuts!
That is, this is Grape Nuts’ contribution to getting people to take action. Those who don’t follow logic or recognize the opportunity or feel inspired or morally moved, what do you say to them? “Wake Up! We’ve seen record heat, melting ice caps, the opportunity to kick start our economy, the promise of real American solutions with real American jobs with solar baseload, photovoltaics, and wind power. If that message doesn’t do the trick, it’s time for Grape Nuts!”
PS
So: Wake-up and use the biomass the right way (for co-gen and breakfast), not for transportation fuels… Maybe the grains (and willow trees, etc.) are organizing and uniting cause they’re annoyed biomass for co-gen (not co-firing!!) isn’t part of the discussion so much…
Maybe they’re also pointing out that if you use a given amount of biomass for heat and *power*, you save more emissions than if you use that same biomass for transportation fuel. Get it? POWER (ie electricity) from grain.
Simple. Hear an alarm (even a false one), get woken up (no matter how), whatever, reach for Grape Nuts – always, every time.
A skillfully constructed ad campaign.
The greatest issue of our age. One that everyone will be talking about.
They are just getting up on their surf board to ride the rising wave of current opinion! Grapenuts is branding themselves as morning hope for the future. Everyone wants to buy that.
Note also that ExxonMobil’s ad – a B&W video with young professional researchers talking battery development and other inventions.
EVERY brand has to land on the right side of global warming, no matter how bad they are. The bigger the need, the bigger the effort.
eat grape-nut (brain power++), then solve the global warming problem!
Joe
The ad team will be proudly circulating your post and these comments to the client (Grape Nuts) as proof that their spend on the campaign is reaching the demographics that they have targeted — in this case the climate community.
The ad means nothing more than “Make Grape Nuts Your Daily Wake-up Call.”
And they’ve gotten you, and us making comments, to carry their message.
David
I feel so used….
Though at least it will give me a few extra “page views” on my monthly stats.
And who knows, maybe I’ll get a few extra readers from the demographics I’ve targeted — clever ad writers.
‘Kudos to the ad writers for whatever [?!] they were trying to do’ – they grabbed your attention.
You are a sucker though, if you have concluded that they are on your side. They are selling breakfast cereal, while you are selling paranoia. Big difference.
Personally, I’d rather wake up hungry than frightened.
Ron:
In order for me to be selling something, I’d have to be charging. The blog dynamic is that I give away content for free and people who are interested in it keep coming back. Who’s the sucker now
And just because you’re buying paranoia, doesn’t mean humans aren’t “on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption.”
And Kraft is clearly making some sort of a statement about climate.
Just to add that popular phrase
‘Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.’
Joe,
While you aren’t selling directly to the consumer, paranoid propaganda IS what you are peddling. CAPAF pays you quite well don’t they?
If they are willing to pay you for what you do, somebody must be making money. There is no such thing as a free lunch, though it probably seems to you like there is sometimes ….
[JR: Why don't you give me a few examples of posts of mine that qualify as "paranoid propaganda"? Let me help you with some definitions: "Therefore, in common usage, the term paranoid addresses a range of mental conditions, assumed by the use of the term to be of psychiatric origin, in which the subject is seen to generalise or project fears and anxieties onto the external world, particularly in the form of organised behaviour focused on them." And "Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented."
If you can't identify at least five such posts among the more than 1000 posts I've written, please withdraw the comment.]
It seems to me that Post has tired of ad campaigns that spuriously confuse the product with desirable lifestyles and has taken the next step into post-modern marketing to completely confuse the customer, thus turning our brains to Grape Nuts.