Valentine’s ads: Have you found the one?
With the imminent arrival of Valentine’s day comes the onslaught of marketing mush as we are encouraged to splurge on our loved ones this year. But with research from Durex finding that 40% of Brits find Valentines a cliché, brands are stepping away from the soppy campaigns and going after the loved up crowd with everything from ketchup flavoured roses to emojis.
So which ads have us falling in love all over again or just wishing we were single? Here is a roundup of the best and worst.
1. Doritos – Ketchup Rose
Show your loved one you care this Valentine’s with a beautiful bunch of ketchup flavoured roses. This year Doritos launched a very special flower delivery service as the perfect present for men. Whilst only available for delivery in Canada, those outside the delivery zone can head to the website for instructions on how to make their very own delicious bouquet.
2. Marmite – A Pot of Love
Marmite has launched personalised ‘pot of love’ jars to help you ask out your crush this Valentine’s. Tying in with the brand’s love/hate positioning, customers can choose different messages for the jars such as, ‘love me or hate me, I’m yours’. With an RRP of only £4.99 the individualised gift is the perfect pot sized present.
3. House of Fraser – Emojinal
House of Fraser split opinion this month with its off the wall ‘emojinal’ campaign. In an attempt to jump on the emoji bandwagon, the retail giant used superimposed emojis on celebrity photos whilst short videos retold famous love stories through the medium of emoji. With some users asking the store if its account had even been hacked, House of Fraser stuck to its guns 🔫 🔫 and continued to reply to tweets with an ever increasingly bizarre collection of emojis.
Whilst the campaign was a strange and seemingly random attempt to connect with the younger generation, it certainly got people talking about House of Fraser – if only to ask what the hell was going on.
Wow. #Emojinal is a masterclass on how to ruin a century-old upscale brand with one terrible social media campaign.
— Holly Brockwell (@holly) February 1, 2016
4. Tesco – Basket Dating
Tesco have become the matchmaker this year with its new ‘Basket Dating’ campaign. Psychologist Rachel Morris tries to match up different customers based only on the contents of their shopping basket. As she matches the ‘cleaning guy’ with ‘domestic lady’ we were rather dubious as to whether you really could find love in the shopping aisle. But the ‘First Dates’ style of the video works, and the frank answers of the daters to the camera gives a humorous view to the statistic that you are more likely to find love in a supermarket than a bar!
5. NHS Organ Donation – #SharetheLove
In an attempt to get the conversation started on organ donation, the NHS has come up with a #SharetheLove campaign explaining that some things are just better left unsaid – and some things aren’t. Portraying a series of increasingly uncomfortable moments on dates, viewers cringe as a man tells his date, ‘you’re gorgeous, you remind me so much of my sister’. Whilst comparing your loved one to your sister might not be the best decision, sharing your thoughts about organ donation is – and the light hearted ad nails the more serious topic.
