Leaving a Message : Provocative Woman in Johnnie Walker Ads Will Entice Passers-by to Call Her, but Will They Buy Her a Drink?
It isn’t exactly telephone sex. But a new billboard advertising campaign for Johnnie Walker Scotch--set to premiere next month in Los Angeles--is, at the very least, telephone titillation.
The $3-million West Coast campaign will feature billboards showing the backside view of a swimsuit-clad woman along with the message, “My number is 213-259-0373.”
Those who make the phone call are greeted by a recording of a woman who says, in a rather sexy voice, “Hi, this is Julie. I bet we have lots in common. Especially if you drink Johnnie Walker.” The woman then states that she likes “roller-skating in Venice, Tchaikovsky at the Hollywood Bowl and slam-dunking at the Forum.”
Johnnie Walker is also set to break a similar campaign with a man’s photo and phone number. After March 15, at least 40 of the Johnnie Walker billboards will grace virtually every major Southland highway--as well as parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Of course, the San Francisco billboards will feature different recordings--and phone numbers. And all of this will be followed by a related print ad campaign in April issues of many magazines.
“Sure, we’ll probably take some heat for this,” said John Morrell, vice president of marketing at New York-based Johnnie Walker. “But sometimes that’s the price you have to pay for breakthrough advertising.”
Indeed, for the past year, the company has been running a billboard and print ad campaign that features the posterior view of two women running on the beach in their swimsuits. In a caption below the ad, one woman says to the other, “And he drinks Johnnie Walker.” A similar ad featuring two men recently debuted in the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.
The ads with the two women have raised the wrath of some feminists, and the telephone campaign will likely be no different. “I don’t know if you can ever get used to how sexism has become a part of our commercial culture,” said Shireen Miles, state coordinator of the Sacramento office of the National Organization for Women. “Sometimes I can’t believe the low level of consciousness of people in the advertising business,” said Miles, who formerly was a copywriter at a Sacramento ad agency.
But one New Jersey advertising consultant said that the billboards are OK with her. “Maybe I’m getting too used to sex in advertising,” said Mari D’Alessandro, president of Mari D’Alessandro & Associates, “but I find some of Calvin Klein’s campaigns far more repulsive than this. Actually, I like the idea that the campaign is only slightly suggestive, but I can’t believe that someone would look at the billboard and think they could actually call that number and get a date.”
In fact, the New York ad agency that created the campaign says the unusual advertising is simply an attempt to get people to notice its client. “We hope the positive fallout is that people reach out and drink Johnnie Walker,” said Leo Greenland, chairman of Smith/Green Inc. “This is good, sound, solid American advertising. We are bringing outdoor advertising to life.”
Greenland also insists that the campaign is not sexist. “We may be trying to titillate people,” he said, “but we’re not trying to sexually arouse anyone.”
Johnnie Walker officials say the campaign will break first in California because the company still views California as a growth market for the brand. And certainly any growth market has to be quickly attacked, as officials estimate that Scotch sales nationally have dropped about 6% annually for several years.
What’s more, about 17% of the nation’s estimated $1.8 billion in annual Scotch sales are in California, said Morrell. So if the ad campaign is a hit in Southern California, by next fall it could spread nationwide, he said.
Meanwhile, Gannett Outdoor Advertising--which charges about $3,600 per billboard per month--will be posting these 48-foot-long billboards locally.
“We didn’t have any second thoughts,” said Jill Schrage, sales assistant at the billboard company’s Los Angeles office. “In fact, when I saw the picture of the billboard with the guy on it, I called the number right away.”
Schrage was a few weeks too early. No one answered.
