Branding Around a Vice

The crew from the transformation design firm, Two West, took at look at branding around a vice this week. We know that there are brands that are synonymous with a vice – alcohol, tobacco and gambling, to name a few. Advertisers and their agencies are required to make many difficult moral choices and its not always easy to make these decisions.

Gary Gonder of the Missouri Lottery was on the show discussing some of those tough decisions they have to make with responsible gaming messages and how the government affects their advertising budgets.

There was a lot that we didn’t get to with this show. While most NASCAR fans are accustomed to seeing driver Jamie McMurray in the cockpit of a fully loaded Ford Fusion, a new television campaign being launched by Crown Royal puts McMurray behind the wheel of a taxicab. The program is to reinforce the importance of getting home safe after drinking. The campaign’s funny, but will consumers listen to the message? Let us know what you think.



In the Brand Rant Two West discussed Disneyland’s decision to replace anonymous children’s faces with Disney characters in The Small World ride. Here’s the Web site that has been established to try to keep the iconic look and feel of the ride, http://www.savethesmallworld.com. Should the ride change or stay the same? Let us know what you think.

In the Brand Spotlight we spoke about Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection’s “We” campaign. Check out the commercial or go to www.wecansolveit.org and check out their site. Let us know what you think.