Do not patronize your target audience!

Most marketers stick to simple ways of product promotion. When it comes to young adults often marketers try to show their product is hip, just like their audience. But sometimes this effort will actually offend your target by showing not only are you not in touch with what they are about, but they know it is some 'old person' just trying to make some money off them.

I wish to highlight two brands who do this right. And one that failed miserably.

The best example of doing it right is Mountain Dew. They know who buys their product. And because of this they sponsor Extreme Sports events. They are synonymous with the edgy fun young adult. This gives the Dew hipster credibility.

A more recent campaign is the 79 89 99 commercials from taco bell. They show funky young adults with a hip hop/street attitude. It is a fun commercial with music and focused on 'we know you want more food for less money'.

Now the flat out failure. This campaign even offends me and I am 41!

Motorola! The last thing this company needs is to alienate the youth from it's new cell phones. The intent is great the message is abominable. They have a print campaign in Rolling Stone to show off the A455 phone which is a cool looking device and specifically geared to text messaging. The problem is they don't know their audience. Yes the 3 models look kind of cool 18ish year olds. But the narrative is ridiculous. One is texting while at the concert gate. One is jumping a fence...uhm what fence? And you can not text while you are jumping a fence! And the last one which is most offensive is the girl 'on the glow stick line'. Obviously the creators have never been to a rave or techno party. First off there are no gates at most events that have glow sticks. Secondly Bush passed the Rave law preventing glow stick sales at public events. And if anything they will bring their own glow sticks!!!!!

Maybe Moto should stick with being what they do best. A provider of solid electronic communication gear for adults and industry.