The visual puns in this ad are so bold?and so disgusting?that when I first saw it, I couldn’t quite believe what I’d seen…. According to the company, it’s an effort to charm constipated old people with a little frat-boy humor. Kellogg’s spokeswoman Allison Costello said the ad’s not geared toward the young: “All-Bran has always been marketed to adults and we have no plans to change our approach.” All-Bran’s target demographic is grown-ups?those 45 and older?and the spot is a nod to the fact that such people can still appreciate potty humor, even at their advanced age. “Talking about regularity is a really tough thing to do,” admitted senior brand manager Matt Lindsay, who helped create the ad. “We liked the idea of leveraging visual metaphors to make it a more approachable subject.”
More approachable? That’s a bit of a stretch…
So writes professional curmudgeon Janelle Nanos in the Oct. 15, 2007 issue of Slate.
(Thanks to investigator Simone Quellos for bringing this to our attention.)