Beyond Urban Branding

I know a lot about this trend. I was a teenager when it was unfolding. This was an amazing time. The cross-cultural dynamic of football and Hip-Hop has never been the same.

One of the many songs where Nas mentions Hennessy. His shout outs to the brand go back to songs like Memory Lane which dropped on Illmatic on April 19th 1994. The connection between Hennessy and Hip-Hop is so old its hard to say what rap record shouted it out first (I will look into that). But since it did, man, nobody ever looked back. I feel deeply conlficted because on one hand alcohol abuse is so rapant in urban communities. On the other it is impressive to see somone like Nas, who truly started from the bottom get the attention of brands like Hennessy and see them acknowledge his role in the growth of their brand. Keep in mind, many MANY brands have gotten huge jumps in brand awareness, positioning, penetration, retention etc. from rappers loving their products they they NEVER batted an eye. I know this sounds silly, but, I'm happy for both of them.

This Walmart phone ad is great. Kinda flips the script on who is rich these days...Gotta love the little green Android guy to. He's cute. 

Reeses has been pushing Hip-Hop for a while now...This is one of their old ones... Here is a shorty family version... This is the latest one...I could not find a better one on Youtube (my bad) I always liked these. I hate the sound quality on this newer vid. 'Cause I actually like the beat... A far cry from this one huh?

I knew when Old Spice dropped these ads, they would fail. I knew they would suck. The first issue is, the brand is Old Spice . The most obvious angle to me would be to frame LL Cool J the old school rap star as an old school artist who uses old school/traditional deodorant. The theme should have been on keeping tradition...Instead they tried to make something old (the positioning of the brand) mix with something new ("swagger") a new school term. They should have either went straight old school, or went with the new rapper like Souljah Boy or Plies (Lord knows he could use some deodorant) and pushed for a completely youth angle. They weakly mixed old and new and came up empty. I dont even know if they sell "swagger" anymore. Not sure I care either. For the record, I dont know ONE person who liked the ads, or bought Old Spice because of these ads. Anyway here it is: -Beyond Urban Branding P.S. I think using names like "swagger", "hyphy" (and i ...