Jack has found the "Link" in Advertisement
CJ Ashburn
Jack
Link’s Inc. is the largest meat snack company in the U.S. and is known for its
legendary beef jerky. A lot of their rise in popularity over the last 5 years
has been due to the success of the “Sasquatch” or maybe better known as
“Messin’ with Sasquatch” advertisements. I felt this was a great line of ads to
analyze mostly because of how different and shocking the commercials can be.
Adding a shock factor to anything will almost always draw attention, so why not
use it in advertisement? Jack Link’s proves that it works considering that
since 2007, when Jack Link’s and Oberto Jerky were splitting the meat snack
market, they have rose as the primary jerky company. The advertisement
technique used by Jack Link’s have given the company the ability to widen the
meat snack market while taking it over by giving their audience short, funny,
and shocking advertisements that draw in any person who views them.
The Creation and Background
Carmichael
Lynch is the agency that has created all of the Sasquatch advertisements for
the Jack Links beef jerky company. The Chief Creative Officer is Dave Damman,
who has had many breakthrough campaigns with Carmichael Lynch. The production
company that works with Carmichael Lynch is MJZ. Rocky Morton is the head
director and writer of the “Sasquatch” ad series. He is also a well-known
English film director and writer. His producer is Donald Taylor. A brief
history of the Jack Link’s company makes some since of their devotion to the
Sasquatch character in most of their advertisements. The early makings of Jack
Link’s was founded in the north woods of Wisconsin by a settler in the late
1800’s. This was Jack Link’s great-grandfather, Chris, who was a prized smoked
meat and jerky maker. These recipes are supposedly the same ones Jack Link’s
uses for their jerky. The same meats that became legendary among lumberjacks
was slowly on its way to becoming the giant corporation it is now. The company
came to life in 1986 when Jack decided to take that same jerky he was selling
out of his first store still in Wisconsin, and turn it into a nationwide
company. Now, Jack Link’s has over one hundred different meat snacks being sold
in over forty countries. A lot of their sales can be thanks to the catchy line
of commercials, with a Sasquatch straight from the Wisconsin northern
wilderness tired of being pranked by jerky lovers.
Who is it Targeting?
After
viewing most of every Sasquatch advertisement, it is clear that Jack Links is
trying to attract multiple different types of people no matter age, gender, and
social class. In one of the ads that I found to be particularly funny was one
of several “Wildest Room on Campus” Sasquatch ads Carmichael Lynch have created.
“Alarm Clock” is targeted for any gender and mostly at young adults. The
“Wildest Room on Campus” label is an effort to attract college students and
people around that age that know what dorm life is like. It includes two
college mascots (Wisconsin Badger and Purdue Boiler Maker) playing a prank on
Sasquatch in his dorm room while he is sleeping. They rig up his alarm clock to
several speakers and as the clock strikes 8:00 the speaker begin to blare and
the Sasquatch jumps up in a crazy rage. The addition of the mascots adds a
larger appeal to followers of the Big Ten Conference as well as college sports
in general. Jack Links is aiming at college students in this ad because they
are a large portion of their sale since it is so easy to eat on the go.
"Alarm Clock"
One
of the ads that is part of the “Messin’ with Sasquatch” targets a little
different type of person than the previous and it is called “Coop”. Farmers and
so-called “Country Boys” would like this one because it takes place on a farms
chicken coop. This ad keeps the same prank ideology as most other Sasquatch
ads, and a not so original one at that. Sasquatch is shown feeding his chickens
while being spied on by a man and woman eating Jack Links jerky. The couple
than place a bucket of water on top of the coop door. When Sasquatch walks out
he gets the water dumped on him and the chickens, and they all go insane.
Sasquatch than throws the woman into a pile of dirt in a crazy rage that is
similar to the other ads. As this ad may be farm related, it is also meant to
appeal any young adult as it is humorous and has a shock factor.
"Coop"
Another
of the ads a part of the “Messin’ with Sasquatch” series is a goofy one
reaching out at a maybe more of a middle age male. This ad is called “Cold One”
and is trending on once again sports, but golf this time. Also it includes men
drinking beer having a good time while eating Jack Link’s jerky. This shows why
it is targeted towards the average male who likes to play golf and drink beer.
But once again the ad is humorous in general and can get a laugh out of anyone
as the Sasquatch gets the beer sprayed straight in the face. Once again, this
is a non-original prank being used in the ad. As well as almost all of the
other “Messin’ with Sasquatch” ads, there is a shock factor thrown in at the
end as Sasquatch pushes over the two guys while in the golf cart. This variety
of themes allows Jack Links to reach out to a wide range of people. It is no
surprise that they are the most popular beef jerky company in the country with
that amount of diversification of advertisement.
"Cold One"
The Content
As
shown in the examples above, there is one basic formula for all of these
Sasquatch ads, but interpreted in different ways to catch anyone’s attention.
It is pretty simple, someone pulls a prank on the Sasquatch and than he
shockingly rages and does something drastic to the pranksters towards the end
of the ad. Whether the content of the ad is directed towards teenagers, college
students, adults, etc. it can still catch anyone’s eye with its mindless humor
and funny surprises. For example, one review says “For a certain demographic,
these commercials have it all: the great
outdoors, hanging with buddies, beefy snack sticks, childish pranks, Bigfoot,
and slapstick violence. For the
16-year-old boy in me, the only thing these commercials are missing is girls in
bikinis”
(Dan
Feit). The funny thing is, is that surely they will come out with a new ad
including attractive women sometime soon. Industries like Hardee’s have shown
that using attractive women in skimpy outfits eating their food is effective at
increasing sales. The gif below explains that extremes are what catch peoples
eye. That is why throwing in a shock factor into the advertisement is what will
get people to remember the product.
It is clear that a strong form of
advertisement is humor and shock. The more attention that can be grabbed from
the viewers can be more money to the company. Jack Link’s would not be where
they are today without advertisement. Getting people to turn their attention to
their ad has turned them into the leader in their market and they do so not by
trying to prove that they have a better product, but do so by making an eye
popping ad that people do not forget when they go to the store. People
underestimate the power of advertisement, what they do not realize is that even
if you have the better product people have to know and remember you have it.
Works Cited
Shaefer,
Richard. Beef Jerky Manufacturing. SBDCnet.
2013.
23 November 2014.
Carmichael
Lynch. Jack Links. CarmichaelLynch.
2014.
http://carmichaellynch.com/category/jack-links/.
23 November 2014
Links,
Jack. Our History. Jack Links. 2014.
23 November 2014.
Edwards,
Guy. 3 New Messin’ with Sasquatch
Commercials. BigFootLunchClub. 2013.
23 November 2014.
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