September 16, 2011, - 3:05 pm
VIDEO: Animal Rts Grps Mad Over Funny Seafood Ads; Ad Execs: “Anti-Liberal Mktg Now Hip”
If you’ve ever lived in Boston, as I briefly did, you know about Legal Sea Foods, the New England-based chain of seafood restaurants. (Yes, I keep kosher, and the chain isn’t kosher, for the record.) Now, they and Madison Avenue advertising executives have discovered that anti-liberal marketing and commercials work. If there’s ever a sign that liberals are a joke, this is it. Legal Sea Foods’ latest ads, in the video below, are upsetting animal rights activists and environmentalists from far-left Greenpeace, and I love it! So will you.
Environmentalists are becoming roadkill on Madison Avenue.
Tuesday, the restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods will roll out three 15-second commercials that initially look like heart-tugging environmental public-service spots about “saving” salmon, trout and crabs — but pull a sudden switcheroo to suddenly become ads prodding folks to chow down on its seafood.
The campaign comes just months after deal-of-the-day website Groupon aired — then yanked — a similar campaign that included actor Cuba Gooding Jr. initially lamenting the dwindling whale population before admitting that instead of “saving” the whales he’d much rather observe them jump out of the water while on a half-price Groupon whale-watching cruise.
A Tea Party-infused nation . . . seems ever-ready to embrace such seemingly anti-liberal marketing imagery.
“I’m not trying to antagonize environmentalists,” says Roger Berkowitz, CEO of Legal Sea Foods. “I’m trying to educate consumers.”
In one spot, a lone trout is shown swimming in a stream. “Save the trout,” says an off-screen narrator. “Save it to swim another day through golden brooks and sunlit streams.” Then, the narrator suddenly changes his tune: “Or just save it so we can grill that baby up real nice.”
The folks at Greenpeace aren’t amused by the Legal Sea Foods ads at all.
“Ironically, the trout sold by Legal Sea Foods is farmed and has never seen a golden brook or sunlit stream,” says John Hocevar, director of Greenpeace Oceans. “The choice isn’t between putting fish on a pedestal or eating them, it’s between reforming the way we produce our seafood or irrevocably degrading our oceans.” . . .
But Berkowitz says the ads will be a viral hit with young folks. “The ads play to the next generation,” he says. “They might have grown up watching South Park instead of Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.”
Makes me hungry for some salmon. Yum.
As I always say, I believe in animal rights . . . right on my plate and yours, next to the veggies.
Tags: Ad, advertising, Animal Rights, commercial, Cuba Gooding Jr., environmentalists, fish, Greenpeace, Greenpeace Oceans, Groupon, John Hocevar, Legal Sea Foods, Legal Seafood, Legal Seafoods, Roger Berkowitz, save the crab, save the crabs, save the salmon, save the trout, seafood, video
The only right an animal has is to taste delicious on a bun.
Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind regarding animal rights the first time my Irish Wolfhound slips me a hand-written note asking me to do so.
Islam Delenda Est on September 16, 2011 at 3:34 pm