I’ve been watching a lot of baseball over the past week or so, as the Yankees battled Cleveland in the AL Division Series. While I don’t want to dwell on the outcome of the series (other than to say–see ya Joe), one thing did catch my eye. There was a Captain Morgan spot that aired frequently throughout the broadcasts which featured a couple of enterprising guys who found a way to get home safely after a night out and get their late night snack at the same time.
In the commercial, the two guys leave a bar, go into a pizza place, and order a pizza for delivery. We then see that they are catching a ride home with the bewildered pizza delivery man. In short, they are getting a late night snack and a free (and safe) ride home to boot. When they get back to their house, we are reminded to always designate a driver.
This Captain Morgan spot is not only selling the brand (”Got A Little Captain In You”), it’s also encouraging responsible drinking. Diageo, who owns the Captain Morgan brand, develops similar responsibility communications across many of their brands.
From the Diageo website:
A key component of our strategy is to promote a shared understanding
of what it means to drink responsibly. For this reason, we have
developed a range of branded advertisements whose core objective is
to deliver a responsible consumption message. Different
advertisements have been developed for different cultures including,
the UK, Thailand, Ireland, Australia, the USA, Spain and the
Netherlands. In the USA for example, we spend 20% of our broadcast
advertising budget on branded responsibility advertisements.
Other than possibly upsetting pizza delivery people, who may now be ferrying their customers home as a result of the Captain Morgan spot, this is an entertaining example of Marketing for Good. Diageo is undoubtedly hoping that they can sell more product and encourage responsible drinking at the same time. It is a marketing tightrope for all purveyors of adult beverages but one that Captain Morgan has managed to handle quite nicely. Perhaps the Captain’s experience walking planks is coming in handy. Regardless, we think this is an *enlightened* approach.