by Matthew Jones

The next time you and your colleagues gather around the water fountain, try having a civilized discussion about race, culture or ethnicity.  You might discover that you've touched on searing topics, where emotions can run very high.

As our society inches towards becoming a culture where equality, inclusion and respect are commonplace, volatile hot-button topics, such as race and religion, are being pressed with increasing frequency and intensity.  Add humor into the mix, and you have a potential minefield.

On the flip side, it can also be said that in order to embrace our differences, we have to be able to laugh at ourselves.  To laugh at our differences is to take away the fear – diffusing the pain and power that stereotypes hold over us.  If we are so sensitive that we are unable to engage in anything but the most restrictive and carefully constructed discussions, then little can be expected to change.

But where does one draw the line?  At what point does humor serve to inflate stereotypes, instead of helping to bring people together?  Is it possible for communicators to know when they have pushed sensitivities beyond the point where notions of equality, inclusion and respect can be advanced?  These are some of the questions marketers face as they attempt to reach an increasingly diverse consumer market.

Virgin Mobile Wishes You A…Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah

Perhaps the holidays are the perfect time to talk about these issues – a magical time of year when friends and families of countless cultures and colors come together to celebrate what has come to be, for many, the most sacred time of year.

To help cut through the clutter, and to avoid the trouble of differentiation, Virgin Mobile – one of the fastest growing telecommunications companies in the world – has launched what it describes as a universal holiday campaign.  The company is wishing you a Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah.  The wish comes wrapped in a brightly-colored, high-energy campaign that features holiday figures from several religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Virgin Mobile will be the first to tell you that the campaign is blatantly cheeky.  They will freely admit that they set out on a bold, risky strategy to break through the holiday clutter.  The campaign, created by Fallon Minneapolis (part of Fallon Worldwide), attempts a humorous approach to a sensitive subject with an integrated campaign full of stereotypes, off-color humor, and in-your-face irreverence.  Its controversial characters include Hindu Santa, Gay Elf, Jew #1 and Jew #2, among others.

Norm Yustin, Group Account Director at Fallon Minneapolis, was eager to engage in discussion about the Chrismahanukwanzakah (CHK) work.  According to Yustin, the campaign is an all-inclusive, multicultural, and positive message of togetherness during the holidays.

“As with any campaign, there will always be people who don’t understand, or it’s not their type of humor,” explained Yustin.  “We were going for something more positive, fun and light-hearted.  It’s all-inclusive.”

It’s all-inclusive, for sure.  In the campaign, everyone is equally part of the joke.  In one email-based greeting card, Jew #1 and Jew #2 sing carols at your front door, including the lyrics “I have a Chrismahanukwanzakah dreidel, I made it out of non-pork meat.  My Chrismahanukwanzakah dreidel, can you feel its Kosher heat.”  Hindu Santa’s carol ends with “Can I have some chutney, please?”

“If you see through the humor and the craziness, you’ll see it’s a very positive message,” said Yustin.  “Some people don’t go that far.”

From the CHK creative team perspective, the multi-ethnicity of the spot is the main visual they want you remember, and feel – different cultures, colors and religions working together to provide a happier holiday season for everyone.

“There are really two messages,” said Yustin.  “On one hand, it’s all-inclusive – we’re embracing our differences, and even combining our differences, while making people laugh a little bit.  A lot of people feel pressure about saying Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah.  What’s the right holiday?

“We’re also sending a message about Virgin Mobile and its wireless business,” continued Yustin.  “We offer all the good things about the wireless business, and none of the bad – no contracts, etc.”

Drawing the Line

Advertising is, and always will be, an arena where sensibilities and sensitivities are tested.  It’s a widely accepted thought in the marketing industry that for every campaign, someone is going to be offended – even when issues of race, gender and culture aren’t addressed.  The process by which something is determined to be funny, informative or offensive can be a complicated one.

“Just because you mean to say one thing, it doesn’t mean the target will take it that way,” said Professor Jerome Williams, Department of Advertising, University of Texas at Austin.  “It’s a matter of encoding and decoding.”

 

While he has not worked with Virgin Mobile or Fallon, Professor Williams spends a great deal of time helping other organizations to gain a better understanding of the multicultural world in which they operate.  When it comes to drawing the line between outreach and offense, he is often the first line of defense.

“When you come from a position of power, it’s easier to (make a joke at someone else’s expense), then if you don’t,” said Williams.  “If you look at the teams that create some of these (racially charged) ads, they don’t have any diversity in the group.  It’s easy to be funny if you’re not part of the joke, and if those who are part of the joke aren’t sitting at the table.”

In the case of the CHK campaign, Yustin asserts that the campaign was opened up to the entire creative staff at Fallon in the early stages, and in that respect, there was some diverse input.  The final product, however, was created by Ryan Peck and Scott O’Leary – who are non-minorities.

Regardless of who creates a particular spot, Williams believes there can be some benefit in laughing at stereotypes, if it’s done correctly.  “To a certain extent, it puts things on the table that we should talk about,” he said.  “That’s what some of this (marketing) does.  It opens the dialogue.”

However, Williams warns marketers to exercise caution when deciding how far to take the joke. “It helps to see something from someone else’s perspective,” explained Williams.  “In order to understand (the potential impact), you have to step out of your comfort-zone and ask – how would this come off if I were on the other side?”

Virgin Mobile has been careful and diligent about monitoring public reaction to their campaign – largely through their media relations team, the Chrismahanukwanzakah site, and the call-in help line – 1.888.Elf-Poop.  Every response, positive or negative, is routed to the public relations department.

“That’s one of the benefits of having the help line,” said Yustin.  “We get real time feedback on the work.  We wanted to be able to hear what consumers had to say – that’s why being able to leave a message was key.  If we cross the line with our customers, then that’s where we draw the line.”

For Williams, there is another, more powerful way for consumers to send feedback to marketers – with their wallets.  “(Marketers) understand where to draw the line when it affects their bottom line,” he said.  “Then, they begin to listen.”

Positive Public Reaction – Mostly…

Virgin Mobile is listening, and apparently they like what they hear.  This is the second year of the campaign, which features the same characters with fresh content.  And while the wireless giant won’t reveal just how far the campaign moved the needle last year, the company did encourage Fallon to revisit the campaign for 2005 – a strong indicator that the campaign has had a positive effective.

“We have had more than 300,000 calls, with 14,000 voicemail messages,” said Yustin.  “The vast majority has been overwhelmingly positive.”

While we don’t know the ethnicity of the people calling in, the huge response might suggest that people are seeing through the shocking humor and to what Virgin Mobile says is it’s true message – togetherness during the holidays.

The statistics from the help line, which allows callers to chose their favorite characters and seek their advice, show that around 50 percent of the callers have consistently chosen the Gay Elf, a small flamboyant man who appears only in the TV spots.  The Jewish and Hindu Santas run about even, around 20 percent.  Kwanzaa Guy, who appears to be the focal character and leader of the Chrismahanukwanzakah group, hovers around 12 percent.

“No one was really worried (about public reaction),” said Yustin.  “We knew, if challenged, that we could talk earnestly about creating a campaign that made people laugh while bringing us all together.”

In one example of togetherness, there is a Cowboy Buddhist Santa inviting the Hindu Santa to a holiday dinner in a television spot.  Also in the TV ads, all the Santas and Elves sit together, answering phones, and trying to help one another through the holidays.

“That’s what’s at the heart of this campaign,” said Yustin.  “Everyone is helping one another – it’s all for a common cause.”

But others see it quite differently.  When Professor Williams first saw the work, his first reaction was that it must not be a real campaign.

“I’m almost in disbelief,” he said of the Chrismahanukwanzakah ads.  “I find it hard to believe that they would not understand the insensitivity, and how consumers might react to that.  This exceeds what I’ve been called in to consult on (with my clients).”

On the flip side, others have expressed shock at the opposite side of the spectrum, suggesting that the campaign is too liberal.  During CNN’s Live From… newscast, the award-winning, veteran anchor Wolf Blitzer asked the question “Is this political correctness gone too far?”

Clearly, Virgin Mobile is willing to take the risk, and stands behind the campaign as a symbol of togetherness.

“The riskiest thing is being ignored,” said Yustin, cutting to the chase as to what advertising is all about.  “Yes, it’s irreverent, but it’s never intended to be mean-spirited.  The intent is to get noticed.  At the same time, you don’t want to alienate your core customers.  And that hasn’t been the case.”

According to Yustin, to ignore the intent is to miss the message entirely – and that would be the worst thing.  If the intent is to grab your attention, the campaign has certainly done its job.

“Even if at first, you say ‘Whoa!’ – it will make people think twice,” he said.  “They’ll think deeper.  The bottom line is, if you have a good heart and a good spirit, then (ethnicity) doesn’t matter – that’s what’s really important.”

If the true message of the campaign is reflected anywhere in the work, perhaps it’s best summed up in a paraphrased song by the racially ambiguous ventriloquist-dummy-meets-supermodel-type angel, as she sings into her cell phone, while staring soullessly into space.

It’s okay of you’re Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew.  It’s okay if you’re agnostic and you don’t know what to do…  Whose Faith is the right one, is anybody’s guess.  What matters more is a camera phone at $50 less.  Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah to you…(The VM Angel)

The End

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