:: adgruntie :: Mendelsohn Zien and recent ads

+ The LA Business Journal has an article on Mendelsohn Zien Advertising, the kings of shock-vertising. Here's a bit from the article:

“It’s very easy in this business to do the advertising equivalent of flashing someone, but it’s not very strategic,” Claudia Caplan, chief marketing officer, said. “We tend to get the ICU patients. We are not a maintenance agency. We tend to do very well with the clients who have the most acute needs.”

[...snip...]

But there’s no solid evidence that it’s pumped up sales at the 1,014 owned or franchised Carl’s Jr. restaurants or for the particular sandwich Hilton was hired to promote, the Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger.

Carl’s Jr.’s same-store sales increased 1.5 percent in the four-week reporting period ended May 23, compared with the like period last year (the Hilton ad began airing May 17). Indeed, some marketing experts expressed skepticism that the publicity would translate to significantly higher sales.

“This is a desperate attempt to get attention,” said Michael A. Kamins, an associate professor of marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. “It could backfire on (Carl’s Jr.) because it’s not mainstream. It could irritate people and get them ticked off.”

Harvey Farr, president of the Farr Marketing Group in Los Angeles, said he doubts the ad will generate any backlash but noted that there’s no clear connection between the scantily clad Paris Hilton and the hamburger she’s promoting.

“The commercial is so over the top that I don’t know that people are going to remember that it’s for hamburgers,” Farr said. “When you do a commercial, you have to have the goal of selling a product.”