Oh monsieur, with these Rocher you're really annoying us (Ferrero Rocher - Ambassador's Party)

Member Name: adamkilleya

Product:	Ferrero Rocher - Ambassador's Party
Date:	28/04/01 (535 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mildly entertaining

Disadvantages: Generally Bad

The ambassador's receptions are noted in society for their dodgy dubbing which doesn't bother his guests but makes the ads seem a bit cacky to us. Yes I know that the dubbing effect is deliberate to enhance the 'foreignness' and thus 'exoticness' of the party but it doesn't really come across like that, speaking a suitably exotic language with subtitles might have worked better in giving a greater 'living the high life' image of the chocolates in question but dubbing just looks cheap - like they couldn't afford to film their own advert so they nicked the footage from some minor ambassadorial shindig that they happened to have on tape.

And when I say that foreign language subtitles would work better I mean they'd help the intended image: I don't actually think that that image would work even if properly done: it looks like they're desperately going for snob appeal and I’m not convinced that that works, at least not with the British, chocoholics that we are. More effective is to say 'these chocolates are good' and to convince us that this is the case than 'these chocolates and posh'. Thornton’s manages to advertise an expensive product well but this is because their ads do concentrate on quality not poshness and because their chocolates are very good

So what have we so far, a bad strategy, poorly executed: not looking good for Ferrero Rocher really is it? What about the chocolate itself. Well they're quite nice but I wouldn't say the taste coincides with the marketing image. They don't make me think 'gosh I’m lucky to get one of these without having to pop over to the local embassy again'. They make me think hmm, OK: Bit pricey. Because the price does coincide with the marketing image. So now we've got a image which

a) Fails in its bid to look like what it's intended
b) If it did look like intended wouldn't work
c) I
f it did work wouldn't please the customer, as the chocolates aren’t really like that

So entertainingly crappy though they are in a mild way I’d suggest that Ferrero either sack the advertising director or get him to think of something new. This doesn't work and has been run for far too long.

Summary: