"End of the world"Chupa Chups released a twisted campaign advertisement, with the slogan “It’s the end of the world without it” in February 2007 via South Africa. The “End of the World” campaign featured three very interesting photos; The Psychologist, The Barman, and The Jumper, which were all designed by Chupa Chups’ creative director, Gareth Lessing and their photographer, Clive Stewart. Mr. Lessing and Mr. Stewart created an extremely interesting campaign that consisted of young children imitating adult actions, as if the children were imitating their role models and/or parents. The Psychologist captures a young boy lying upon a leather couch, explaining his “problems” to a therapist or in this case psychiatrist. The same boy is re-featured in The Barman, in which he is taking shots of milk from the teddy bear bartender to help him forget his “problems”. However, in The Jumper, a little girl is the main focus. She is standing atop a blue dollhouse and threatening to take her life if she doesn’t receive a Chupa Chups lollipop soon. Gareth Lessing and Clive Stewart illustrate the epitome of all temper tantrums through this replication of suicide. Chupa chups...successful?
In this case, Chupa Chups is the way to go. The company is trying to advertise that their lollipop’s are the best in existence, so, once you go Chupa Chups you never go back. It the “End of the World” campaign, Chupa Chups is advertising a lollipop addiction. One that gives them more customers, money, and maybe even a Monopoly on lollipop whole sales. They are showing you their addiction to the product in hopes that you, as a consumer, will buy it. Or in other words, manipulating your brain into thinking that you also have a Chupa Chups lollipop addiction. This advertise campaign is a lot like a car salesman. In the same way, Chupa Chups is attempting to modify the consumer's emotions, a car salesman reverses the way a consumer expected to feel about a certain car. Both, the campaign and car salesman are somehow getting their audience to adjust the way they perceive a product. Chupa Chups use of changing the mood is extremely bold because they gain the risk of losing buyers, while broadcasting their consuming addiction to their own lollipops. “If your friends told you to jump off a bridge, would you?” Chupa Chups fails miserably in their execution of decorum. Heinrichs explains this as being the “art of fitting in”(47) and that “adults sometimes commit a decorum crime when they are dealing with children.”(48) Chupa Chups is defying the status quo with this advertisement. Most people don’t want to commit suicide to achieve attention. However, in the third campaign image, Chupa Chups, is making it look as if suicide is the norm. That it’s an everyday occurrence and you’re only cool if you commit suicide. Chupa Chups use of decorum in this advertisement is just like the hierarchy of high school. Survival of the fittest is the first phrase that comes to my mine. In high school, everyone wants to be beautiful and popular. No one wants to be invisible. Chupa Chups should have steered clear of suicide tendencies and more towards the hierarchy of their consumers desires. The corporation's use of decorum, while it didn’t hit the nail on the head, was heading in the right direction. Chupa Chups just used the wrong “hip new thing” to connect to their lollipop’s. And yes, while their lollipop’s might be the best, I don’t think I’m going to commit suicide to find out. It seems as if Chupa Chups is just on a bad streak with rhetoric because their misuse of the technique disinterest might just cost them everything. Jay Heinrichs emphasises a character problem to fall under the category of disinterest. He tells his readers that “even if you are chock-full of virtue, street smarts, and selflessness, if your audience doesn’t believe that you are, then you have a character problem.”(77) As a speaker and figurehead of a company, you want your audience to trust you to do the right thing in any given circumstance. Chupa Chups audience definitely doesn’t believe that they have their children's best interest at heart after viewing the three piece advertisement released in 2007. Hell, even I don’t. This use of a character problem is like a doctor-patient relationship. If you lose trust in your doctor, you aren't going to go back. The trust created with your doctor determines the status of your future relationship. Chupa Chups use of disinterest may have been what caused the advertisement to burn up in flames to begin with. With many people, not only being unable to connect with the image of the young child wanting to end her life, but also not wanting that scenario at all for their own children. did it workHow well did Chupa Chups pull off these rhetorical devices? If you ask me, not well. Chupa Chups used the wrong advertisement for this campaign “End of the World.” Instead of showing children carefree and playful while enjoying a Chupa Chups lollipop. They choose to photograph young children in depressing settings. Each photograph illustrates one method, in which, children are trying to solve their addiction of Chupa Chups lollipops. Method one, The Psychologist. This is where the young boy is asking for help in order to beat his addiction. Method two, The Barman. In which, the young boy is trying to drink his addiction away. Method three, The Jumper, where suicide is the only way left. The consumer audience of Chupa Chups lollipops had a divided reaction to the campaign. On one side of the scale were those who found the ads funny and humorous. On the other side of the spectrum were those who found the advertisements to be too realistic and out of context. However, I only have this to say, “Is asking for help funny? Is addiction? What about suicide?” If you take away the fact that these are children, is it still funny? The seriousness of these advertisements are hidden behind sayings like, “But children wouldn’t do that” and “They’re just kids, they don’t know that's not right.” Are we really that desensitizes as a country? I hope not!
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