Advertisers Feast on Controversy

Rodney G. King has been the subject of many things--from talk shows to public debates--but until now, hardly fodder for an advertisement.

Sometime in the next few weeks, however, a little-known Chinese fast-food chain will hoist a billboard at one of Los Angeles’ busiest intersections that says: “Maybe the Rodney King jurors would have deliberated longer if they weren’t so sick of pizza.”

Whether or not consumers find that line funny--or even in good taste--isn’t the point. In fact, that line exists for only one reason--to prompt consumers to read the small print under it that says the Wok Fast chain delivers Chinese food. King--a topical subject if ever there was one--is being used to get people chatting about a tiny food chain that didn’t even exist three years ago.

In these days of sound bites, video clips and newscasters who promise “more at 11,” marketers are fast discovering that one of the best ways to generate consumer and media interest in a product is to peg its ad campaign to some controversial current event.

King isn’t the only one making inroads with advertisers. Days after Ross Perot quit the presidential race, an ad agency, a TV station and a national TV network were all featuring his mug in self-promotions.

Just days after Vice President Dan Quayle made his famous spelling gaffe, a shoemaker and a TV network both made fun of it in promotional ads. And less than two weeks after Quayle questioned “Murphy Brown’s” family values, Swedish car maker Volvo tried to cash in on the suddenly hip phrase by offering its own “family values” package.

“It’s a great way to be hip and cool,” said Sam Craig, chairman of the marketing department at New York University’s business school. “But it’s not a very effective way to communicate a product’s benefit.”

What’s more, when advertisers latch on to timely but controversial issues, “they run the risk of alienating people,” said Valerie Folkes, associate professor of marketing at USC. She said that marketers who take this route are essentially saying, “I don’t care what people think of me, just as long as they think of me.”

Certainly, a lot more consumers are thinking about Wok Fast these days. Earlier this month, the neophyte chain posted a billboard featuring a picture of former Police Chief Daryl Gates. Wok Fast was attempting to promote its own delivery service by linking it to Gates’ refusal to leave office. Its billboard said: “When you can’t leave the office. Or won’t.”

Wok Fast plans yet another billboard that lampoons the state’s budget debacle. It will feature this headline, “We accept MasterCard, Visa and American Express. Sorry, no IOUs.”

Why is Wok Fast running such a campaign? Simple, said Evan Dameshek, chairman of the firm. “To leave an impression in someone’s mind.” He said the publicity the campaign has generated far exceeds its meager ad budget.

“We’re not trying to offend anyone,” adds Morrie Tobin, president of Wok Fast. “These are tense times, and it’s nice to try to make someone smile.”

Wok Fast’s ad agency makes no apologies for the campaign. “If you do advertising that nobody complains about, it probably means no one has noticed it,” said Jordin Mendelsohn, executive creative director of the Los Angeles agency Mendelsohn/Zien.

Current political events attracted the attention of several advertisers, who began featuring Perot’s mug in ads immediately after he dropped out of the presidential race.

MTV began airing 10-second promotions featuring a smiling Perot while an off-camera musician played taps. And KPIX, a CBS television affiliate in San Francisco, aired a promotional ad for its news programming--featuring images of Perot--within 36 hours of his announcement.

The ad was actually written and filmed within 24 hours. It was on the air the next day. “You must run these things immediately, or the humor is lost,” said Jeff Atlas, chairman of the San Francisco agency Atlas Citron Haligman & Bedecarre, which created the KPIX ad.

Even faster to the draw was the San Francisco agency Katsin/Loeb & Partners, which created and mailed promotional signs to its clients the same day Perot backed out. The signs feature a picture of Perot under the headline, “Another product fails due to lack of advertising.”

“The point here is that every advertiser has to build a brand image,” said Jef Loeb, chairman of Katsin/Loeb & Partners. “We’re not making fun of Perot. It’s just a general comment on the value of advertising.”

In New York, shoe retailer Kenneth Cole has plastered signs all over Manhattan that lampoon Quayle’s public misspelling of the word potato. Its ad features a rather silly photo of Quayle next to this misspelled advice, “Don’t forget to vot.”

No Excuses Jeans, perhaps the king of topical advertising, is also planning a hush-hush topical ad campaign for its upcoming introduction of a line of men’s jeans. In the past, No Excuses featured controversial women to pitch its brand--including Donna Rice, the model whose friendship forced Gary Hart to drop out of the 1988 campaign; and Marla Maples, who has had an on-again, off-again romance with developer Donald Trump.

Now, however, No Excuses says it is catching up with the ‘90s. And despite many requests from the public, it declined to pursue an ad featuring Gennifer Flowers--the former nightclub singer who claims to have had a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton. “We have no interest in that,” said Dari Marder, vice president of marketing at New Retail Concepts, which makes No Excuses.

Instead of featuring topical celebrities or controversial characters in its ads, No Excuses will soon begin to feature front-page heroes. “We want our image to be more positive,” Marder said. The company declined to identify celebrities with whom it is negotiating, but sports marketing sources say it has approached Magic Johnson to promote its new men’s line of jeans.

In the meantime, Marder said, her company’s past use of controversial celebrities in the news has brought it millions of dollars in free publicity. “If all of America is talking about No Excuses jeans for one night,” said Marder, “then it’s worth offending some people.”

Briefly . . .

The $20-million account for C&R; Clothiers is under review after the Santa Monica agency Kresser/Craig withdrew from consideration after handling the account on an interim basis . . . The Los Angeles office of Dentsu America has affiliated with Avon, Conn.-based Sillery Mayer Skurnik to pursue retail accounts on the West Coast . . . Phillips-Ramsey Advertising of San Diego will handle ads for new products by Solectek Corp., a San Diego maker of computer transmission devices . . . The marketing firm Smith/Fischer & Partners has been founded in Los Angeles . . . Four top California university alumni magazines--USC, UCLA, Stanford and UC Berkeley--have formed the California Network, operated out of Stanford, which will try to attract advertisers who want to reach well-educated consumers . . . The Olympics are there now, but Barcelona will host the International Advertising Assn.’s biannual World Congress Sept. 27-30 . . . Scott Bedbury, Nike’s director of advertising, will speak today at the Los Angeles Creative Club’s monthly meeting at the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles at 7 p.m.