Pursuing Good Times With Ads on Bad Times

The nagging downturn has nudged several big advertisers into breaking one of Madison Avenue’s cardinal rules: Never admit that there’s a recession.

Volkswagen and Albertson’s have created unusual ad campaigns that attempt to ride on the coattails of the ongoing slowdown.

While Volkswagen is offering to take over payments from new-car buyers who lose their jobs, Albertson’s this week is adopting a “War Against Recession” theme featuring an ad campaign that promises “recession-busting prices.”

These face-the-facts marketing strategies run contrary to the happy news that most advertisers prefer. But with so much consumer concern about the economy, a growing number of marketers believe that conventional “Have a Coke and a smile” advertising is not the best way to sell products.

At the same time, advertising experts warn, there are risks for advertisers that jump on the recession bandwagon.

“It smacks of faddism,” said Valerie S. Folkes, marketing professor at USC. Advertisers often try to stand out by creating topical ads. By harping on the recession, she noted, they may be unintentionally emphasizing a negative.

Ads that refer to the sour economy may be risky, agreed Brad Ball, president of the Los Angeles agency Davis, Ball & Colombatto. “No advertiser wants to scare people out of purchase decisions,” he said. “You want to motivate consumers by relevance, not fear.”

Of course, Volkswagen and Albertson’s are trying to persuade consumers that they want to make things easier for consumers in hard times.

Before creating its campaign, Volkswagen interviewed dozens of consumers. The vast majority said the major factor stopping them from making new-car purchases was fear of losing their jobs.

“If you don’t address what’s foremost on the mind of the consumer, who will listen to you?” posed David Schembri, director of marketing at Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Volkswagen of America Inc.

Under Volkswagen’s “Payment Protection Plus” program, the company promises to make car and insurance payments of up to $500 per month for buyers of VWs who lose their jobs during the first three years of the loan. Volkswagen promises to make the payments for up to one year.

(The program generally excludes the self-employed as well as people who lose their jobs for reasons unrelated to the economy.)

“We’re not trying to trick anyone,” said Schembri, who noted that no VW buyers have cashed in on the program during its first three weeks. “We’re turning a negative into a positive.”

The VW commercial begins with this attention-getting statement: “We interrupt this recession for an important announcement.” It might appear that struggling Volkswagen has little to lose. The company sold 96,721 cars and vans in the United States last year, according to Ward’s Automotive Reports. Just a decade ago--before Japanese car makers began to really cut into its market--Volkswagen was selling nearly 300,000 vehicles in the United States.

At least one dealer said the ad campaign is a big success. Sales at Volkswagen Santa Monica are up 20% since the campaign began three weeks ago, said Michael Sullivan, owner of the nation’s largest Volkswagen dealership. “If we do normal advertising, we just drift away,” he said.

But a top retail advertising executive said Volkswagen may be harming its image with this new strategy. “They are almost positioning themselves as the car for people who may be out of work tomorrow,” said Jack Roth, president of the Los Angeles agency Admarketing. “I wouldn’t want to buy one on that premise.”

What’s more, chided Roth, “it makes the company seem more depressed than the economy.”

Meanwhile, Albertson’s has launched TV, radio and print advertisements that describe the nation’s sixth-largest supermarket chain as providing “the mother of all savings” during the recession.

The campaign “puts us right in the middle of the recession battlefield,” said Jim Reynolds, vice president of marketing at the Boise, Ida.-based chain, which has 564 stores nationally.

The “War Against Recession” theme is not only featured in its ads, but employees in some stores will wear hats and camouflage shirts to underscore the imagery. Albertson stores will also be stocked with posters and buttons to support the promotion. Huge “War Against Recession” signs will be displayed for items sold at--or below--store cost.

Behind this campaign is Santa Monica’s Kresser/Craig Advertising. “We thought it was time to stop using euphemisms,” agency President Jean Craig said.

Indeed, President Bush was accused of using the same euphemisms for months, said Craig--”and look what has happened to him.”

For its part, Volkswagen knew when to launch its car payment protection TV campaign: the same evening as Bush’s State of the Union address.

Briefly . . .

The Venice-based agency Livingston & Keye has won the $2-million-plus ad account for San Jose software maker Claris Corp. . . . The Culver City-based marketing design firm Mednick Group has signed a long-term marketing pact with Reebok International. . . . Kellogg’s is shipping tens of thousands of boxes of Special K cereal--printed before the Olympics--that feature congratulatory words and a photo of figure-skater spokeswoman Kristi Yamaguchi wearing a gold medal. . . . The Santa Ana ad firm Roberts, Mealer & Co. has been named agency for the Cypress-based semiconductor division of Sony Component Products Corp. . . . Scott A. Rogers and Andrew W. Robertson have formed R & R Partners, a San Diego sports marketing firm.