A couple of those “only in the marketing world” stories topped the headlines both here and south of the border as 2006 wound down. As usual, the American story was way more over the top with hints of extramarital sex, bribery, favouritism and excessive sushi consumption compromising the year’s biggest ad account review. But our own smaller tale, while revolving around the internal politics of a wholesome agrimarketing collective, actually held its own. It even hinged on a bit of sex, too. And it underscored many of the same issues that almost inevitably arise when boundary-breaking creativity clashes with conservative corporate cultures.
I’m talking, of course, about the great Wal-Mart-Julie Roehm contretemps and the Dairy Farmers of Canada “Stop cooking with cheese” imbroglio.
The former situation saw Roehm, the flamboyant Wal-Mart senior VP marketing communications brought aboard from Chrysler in January as a “change agent” to energize the retailer’s stodgy Bentonville, Ark. marketing department, fired on Dec. 5 after less than 10 months on the job. The agency she’d just hired at the end of October, Interpublic’s DraftFCB, was promptly let go and Wal-Mart’s US$580-million ad account put into review again.
Roehm’s crimes? She was accused of being improperly close to Draft during the pitch. She’d extolled the capabilities of Draft at a presentation to agency search consultants at a trendy New York sushi bar in September before the Wal-Mart agency search was completed, and allowed herself to be taken for a spin in Howard Draft’s Aston Martin as part of the “chemistry check” in the pitch process. This, at a company that is so intent on the appearance of propriety and keeping its suppliers at arm’s length, that taking so much as a cup of coffee from a vendor is verboten. And then there were the allegations-vehemently denied-that Roehm was having an affair with one of her direct reports, who was also fired on Dec. 5.
For the newly merged DraftFCB, the loss is a major blow. The Chicago-based shop had been basking in the glow of affirmation that the Wal-Mart win bestowed on their below-the-line driven agency model. Advertising Age-which was all over the story from the beginning-reported that it had been poised to bestow its agency of the year honour on Draft, but now wouldn’t.
At least in Canada, Cossette Communication-Marketing was allowed to pitch to retain the Dairy Farmers of Canada’s $16.8-million cheese and butter advertising account that was put into re-view apparently as a result of one ad that offended many of the farmers who effectively own the marketing co-op. In a way that’s as odd as any of the stuff happening in Bentonville. (At press time, it was announced that Cossette was indeed on the short list.)
The “Stop cooking with cheese” campaign is the kind of advertising that easily grates on the nerves of the ad creative community, but gets embraced by a less discriminating general public. The crotchety old lady who delivers the “Can’t get your kids to leave home? Stop cooking with cheese” punch line to each spot depicting parents going to extremes to get their grown-up children to move out, was quickly absorbed into the pop culture lexicon. But even in the early going there was sporadic criticism of the campaign for its implicit “anti-family” subtext.
Then came the latest execution, “Protection.” In it two parents lament to a teenage boy that his girlfriend is “not good enough for him” and is “cheap,” with the reveal that they are talking about their own daughter. The old lady then pops up on the couch to sign off with “Can’t stop your daughter’s boyfriend coming over? Stop cooking with cheese.”
The cheese quickly hit the fan. A wave of complaints from the general public-and from dairy farmer members of DFC-cast the ad as too “mean spirited” and “anti-family,” Nathalie Nol, DFC director of marketing, told The Globe and Mail. A committee of dairy farmers made the decision to pull the campaign and call an account review to develop a new approach to cheese marketing, Nol said. “Our organization is a farmer-based organization. We have to consider what they have to say.”
Indeed they do.
But you also have to expect that DFC, and its constituencies, signed off on the entire campaign, and its specific elements, before any of it went to air. Is it fair that an agency gets fired for one misstep, that in the end the client said yes to? No. Is it an unfortunate fact of life in an organization with many centres of authority-most of them with very little marketing savvy-to appease? Yes.
And really what happened at DFC is exactly what happened at Wal-Mart USA last month.
Julie Roehm may or may not have pushed the ethical envelope, but she’s also got a solid track record as a sharp, professional marketer. Yes, she’s been know to OK edgy advertising, but she’s also one of the U.S. industry’s leading proponents of embracing new media, and accountability and measurability in all ad expenditures.
Wal-Mart knew what it was hiring a year ago. The Dairy Farmers agreed to the campaign they are now rejecting. In the end, both organizations weren’t ready to fully embrace the actions they know they should-and indeed tried to-take.
