Does it hurt when your coffee bites back?

And now it’s time for two ads that I love.

These two ran in a campaign for Stella coffee makers.
The headline reads, “The bite of coffee.”

I don’t know what it is that just gets me about these ads. Maybe it’s the big, ruby red lips. Or the arachnids crawling into places they shouldn’t. But they just make me want to put them up on billboards and show them to the world. This could have been what the client thought, but then decided that his budget wasn’t big enough, so a magazine would have to suffice.

The contrasting colour’s of these ads works well in attracting your attention. The pale white of the woman’s skin. The strong red of her lips. And the dark, almost black, of the coffee beans. They make for a very seductive, appealing ad. For men anyway.

As you can see, the spider and the scorpion are made up of different sized coffee beans. This fits in well with the headline. Spiders and scorpions are seen as dangerous creatures that have a poisonous sting/bite. This is implying that the coffee has a very strong smell and taste. The spider playing on the taste, as it climbs into the woman’s mouth. And the scorpion plays on the smell, as it climbs up her nose.

There is an almost cringe effect in these particular adverts. They make the viewer not want to look at it for very long, but still manage to get the point across. This is why a long, boring passage of copy wouldn’t have worked. People wouldn’t have read it, and wouldn’t have understood the meaning behind it.

There is a problem here though. The ad is using something negative to try and promote something positive. There have been ads that have tried to portray something that smells disgusting by using something disgusting.

This was an ad for Super Lock Tupperware. This was a good way of saying that negative smells can stick with you. The consumer can relate to this. They know how much seafood can stink if it’s left uncontained. They know that it gets right up into your nose, almost.
Using a scorpion and a spider may have been a bit much. You don’t want to feel pain when you smell your morning coffee.

I think that an ad needs to stick in your mind when you look at it. It needs to be memorable. Stella coffee is certainly memorable, but for some people they might only remember it as an ad that they never want to see again. For me, it reminds me that I love strong coffee, and that I could have strong coffee everyday with a Stella coffee pot.

All publicity is good publicity, as long as you or your brand is seen in a good light.