No Kudos to Koodo Campaign

Koodo is a cell phone service which I'm assuming was launched in 2008. From the two executions you'll see posted here, I really have to wonder who their target group is - certainly not me. Both spots came out over the Christmas period and I was cringing even at the first viewing.



There's nothing wrong with doing a Christmas season commercial and using carols for the music. It helps make the link between the commercial and the season (and it helps keep the advertisers from using the bad ones after the season is over.)

I suppose the commercials at least conveyed the basic service proposition - no fixed-term contracts and unlimited texting.

My objection, and the reason for wanting to include these executions in this blog, is more the style and tone of the commercials.

Jingles are supposed to rhyme. I'm OK with that. But the copywriters seemed soooo stretched for rhymes on these two.

In one case, my last memory of the commercial is the line "... don't eat yellow snow." I guess it was the only way the copy writer could come up with a phrase that rhymed with Koodo and had something to do with winter. What does this have to do with cell phone service?? (More importantly, what does this say about the brand manager who signed off on this copy?!?) The only person I've known who could make that line funny (apart from some of my sophomoronic friends) was Frank Zappa. This doesn't even come close.

From the same commercial, the terms "gross" and "sleazy" stick in my mind - perhaps as descriptors for these executions. In my sales training, we were always told to never slam your competition - to always portray our competitors as capable, but we're just a bit better. Heavily loaded terms like gross and sleazy, in this case, don't make for a very positive impression of Koodo and, since they're terms I remember from the commercial, they also present a real risk of Koodo being seen as the ones who are gross and sleazy - not the competition!

I'm old enough to remember the "follow the bouncing ball" cartoons. The format's not bad. Not great.. but not bad either. But where did they dig up the two dudes whose faces we're supposed to follow along as the jingles are sung? They look like they're straight out of the seventies - big hair and fu Manchu moustache and all. Does this mean we're supposed to see Koodo as some fantastic technology from the past that's finally caught up to us? Or does it mean the art director watched "Up in Smoke" the night before presenting to the client while enjoying the fruits of his "herb" garden?

In either case, I don't think these devices bring anything to the executions that adds value for the target group or enhances the image of Koodo as a brand.

Back to the Brand Manager, who’s going to have these babies in his/her portfolio. Who is your target group? If it’s anyone over the age of 30, I think you missed the mark completely. If it’s tweens, you might have a chance. The lyrics sound sort of like how my kids talked when they were in their teens – and THEY didn’t think the commercials were humorous. The commercials WERE provocative – but not in a positive way.

Please Koodo, do not repeat these commercials next Christmas. It would make me feel like Bill Murray’s character in “Groundhog Day”.

P.S. A useful exercise in assessing advertising is to both commercials 6 times in a row. If you enjoy the 6th time more than the first, it's probably a good execution. If you hate it more on the 6th time than the last (assuming you force yourself to six repeats), then it's probably a bad execution. If six viewings haven't made a difference to you, please check your pulse.