Few besides client and agency know it yet, but MindShare Taiwan is running a product placement campaign for Cerebos in seven of the island’s temples.
The product is Huo Tuo essence of chicken, and it is being stacked amid offerings on sacrifice tables, so that worshippers see the Huo Tuo logo as they burn incense for the gods. The campaign generates no publicity.
Perhaps what is problematic about MindShare Taiwan’s campaign for Huo Tuo essence of chicken is that it is a product placement. Typically, ambient advertising aims to create buzz that spills into the media.
“Our client wants this to be a quiet campaign,” said Mindshare Taiwan’s assistant manager Athena Chen.
Chen and her team have suggested several approaches - all rejected - for increasing the campaign’s impact. One idea was to have actors dressed in kungfu garb used in Huo Tuo’s TV ads appear at temples with the product.
“We are two months into a five month campaign, so we can’t say what the actual ROI will be,” said Chen.
“Right now we are estimating a CPM of NT$150 (US$5), which is quite low if compared to a Taiwan outdoor campaign.”
Chen calculated that CPM by dividing campaign budget by historical traffic figures reported by the temples for the bai bai days chosen for the Huo Tuo ambient effort.
Ironically, temples and churches are perhaps the most heavily sponsored venues in public life.
In Buddhist temples, grottoes bear plaques to the civic groups sponsoring its deity, and in Christian churches stained-glass murals bear the names of secular donors.
Is nothing sacred? Does surreptitiously promoting a product in a place of worship cross an ethical boundary? Is religion necessarily off limits to ambient advertising?
No, says Hari Ramanathan, regional creative planner, Y&R. “You’ll find tons of examples in India, but they’d require some explaining.”
He also recalls seeing religion used in an ambient campaign by DraftFCB in Malaysia for Anlene milk during Ramadan.
But when it comes to injecting a commercial product into worship, Ramanathan is less comfortable.
“If it is actually inside a temple,” he cautions, “I would think the motive has to be philanthropic.”
Grey Group Asia-Pacific chief strategic officer Chris Beaumont agrees, pointing that abject commercial would be out of place.
“Such a campaign would need to be for a non-profit or convey a message for people less well-off,” said Beaumont. “The ethics of the location is still case by case. Taste tends to be personal.”
Ultimately, it is the public not the marketer that decides limits, according to David Chard, veteran of Taiwan’s public relations industry and current regional director of Edelman Talent Academy.
“The question of ‘good taste’ is entirely up to the people who worship their gods, ” said Chard.
“For 30 years I have seen all manner of consumer goods placed on Taiwanese altars, including Long Life Cigarettes and Taiwan Beer. These were placed by the people themselves, so I would conclude these are in ‘good taste’.”
“For a commercial product placement, it’s a matter of observing if anyone feels the line has been crossed and understanding why.”
Whether consumers feel that Huo Tou’s ambient campaign crosses that line, however, remains to be seen.
to blatant ‘point-of-worship’ advertising, though, remains to be seen.
Live Issue... Marketers work in mysterious ways
Targeting consumers in places of worship may exceed the bounds of good taste.
