Some Poor Combo Branding

This past week, Combo snacks began a new advertising campaign. These advertisements depicted an over weight, 30ish male posing questions to his mother (who was actually a 50 something male dressed in women’s clothes). The careless “mom” practically ignored the childish son, but rather was enthralled by how they were able to get all the cheese in the middle of the pretzel. The tag-line being; “What your mother would feed you if she was a man.”

With all the advertising going on these days, I understand trying to carve out a niche market and trying to own a piece of the consumer’s mind, but really? The “food your mother would feed you if she was a man” is not a market that this snack company should be carving out. Campbell’s has done a good job using the mothers of NFL stars to sell their Hearty soups, but do so in a positive light.

America today is a health conscious consumer. I’m not only scared to look at the health facts on the back of the snack bag, but seeing two overweight men is not something that most consumers want to imagine themselves as; especially recalling the obesity when choosing a snack, either at the grocery or convenience store.

A much better branding route would be how impressed friends would be when the see the snack at a Super Bowl party or the great taste in one small Combo. How many pretzels do you see being advertised on television, not many, that’s the market to carve out… how about something along the lines of “It’s a pretzel with flavor” or “A pretzel never tasted so good.”

Own the pretzel market, not the overweight, unattractive market.