Welch's Taste Tests Lickable Ads

Wall Street Journal:

Madison Avenue thinks a tasty approach will give new life to Welch's grape juice.

Welch's is taking out full-page print ads in People magazine this month that give readers a chance to sample its grape juice by licking the ad. The front of the advertisement shows a huge bottle of the juice, while the back has a strip that peels up and off, with text that reads: "For a TASTY fact, remove & LICK."

Marketers are excited about the prospects for lickable ads, but also have to deal with the "ick" factor. Since magazines are often passed from reader to reader (think doctors' offices) there is a good chance that saliva could be left on the ad. Readers are supposed to peel off the entire sticker on the Welch's ad before licking, says First Flavor, the company that developed the technology used in the ad. If someone doesn't rip off the whole sticker, First Flavor says, the flap can't reseal, giving people an easy way to know whether the ad has already been licked.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[JBMinkoff]

04:36 PM on 02/17/2008

As the president of First Flavor, the company bringing this Peel 'n Taste product to market, there is a major correction to the WSJ article: This is not about Lickable Ads. Welch's used the term 'lick' in their ad and no one seems to have bothered to read the fine print.

Our product, which can be attached to a print ad and peeled off, is a sealed tamper evident foil pouch containing a piece of edible film. (Similar to popular breath strips.) One peels opens the pouch and places the piece of edible film on your tongue. The edible film dissolves quickly leaving you with a burst of flavor. No licking involved!

The point that was really missed was that finally consumers now have a way of trying the taste of a product before they buy it. We call it taking a product for a 'Taste Drive'!

[VOTER]

08:11 AM on 02/14/2008

FIRE THIS AD AGENCY NOW!

Welch's has lost more sales with this stupid ad

than it would from a total product recall.

UNBELIEVABLE!

[HippieChick]

02:52 PM on 02/13/2008

"print ads in People magazine this month that give readers a chance to sample its grape juice by licking the ad"

And the fool who came up with this beyond comprehension, absolutely disgusting marketing strategy graduated from...?

[geobushono]

02:14 PM on 02/13/2008

my day is over. This is the stupidest idea i'll find on the web today.

[bmermaid]

12:56 PM on 02/13/2008

Way too many germs, even if no-one has licked before.
And the media is just now starting to figure out that this has been a terrible flu season.
I had the flu for 2 weeks. Almost everyone I know, from coast to coast has had it. If there were a real pandemic, I don't think we would even hear about it until it had spread through the country and thousands were already dead.
Of course, the present administration would do all they could to cover it up.

[bmermaid]

01:01 PM on 02/13/2008

PS I had the flu shot about 6 weeks before I got the flu, so did most of the people that got the flu. This years dominate flu virus obviously was not one of the ones they predicted. I'd like to see a study on that. Many people say they get the flu shot every year and get the flu almost every year. My anecdotal evidence says the flu shot is very ineffective.

[BC33]

11:21 AM on 02/14/2008

Mark me down as one who gets a flu shot every year and not gotten the flu==>

(KNOCK WOOD REALLY, REALLY HARD!)

Also, I am immuno-compromised, so I usually get min flu shot the moment they come out. I swear by them.