Your opinion?
Posted by Rich...! under Uncategorized on July 11 2006 at 9:07 PMSo I just got mailed this from a person that works for a Discovery competitor asking if I thought it was blog-worthy.
| Discovery Health is the largest health scheme provider ( something like Blue Cross in America I suppose) in S. Africa, it is owned by Remgro which owns BATSA. Remgro also own 62% of all the hospital beds in S.Africa. This is an advert in their Discovery Health quarterly magazine. Here we have yet another example of brand stretching, I find it beneath contempt for them to advertise a cigarette brand in a health publication. |
Here’s the ad in question:
Personally, I do think it’s worth blogging about, but only because I find it quite a petty attempt to attack a competitor without any real substance, kinda like Audi’s (possibly faked) not-at-all-snappy-yet-pretty-crappy retort. Me, I see nothing wrong with the ad at all. They’re not advertising smokes, and brand diversification is becoming more and more common.
Shit, just ask Branson…!
July 12th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
You’re right, they’re not selling cig’s, so it’s ok.
July 12th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
not to be pinnickity, but remgro owns 24% stake of rmb holdings which owns 30% of firstrand which owns 60% of discovery. this, together with the fact that it only owns 30% of BAT plc (which own BATSA), i think makes my point. it’s hardly a guy who opens a liquor store and a rehab clinic next door to each other. added to which, no one has seen an ad for dunhill (or any) cigarettes in this country for what, four, five years? good for them re-inventing a valuable brand. sounds to me like someone went to work for discovery hoping to help people become healthier and found they landed up working for a corporate monolith doing nothing of the sort. for the record, i’ve worked at discovery. it sucks. get over it. or get a new job…
July 12th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
I don’t get it. Who wants to smell like a Dunhill cigarette, anyway?
July 14th, 2006 at 1:37 am
Such a red herring! Dunhill have for more years than I can remember been a fashion and accessories name as well. Where have these anal people been? Don’t they read or visit upmarket malls? They should go do something for charity or for organizations needing idle hands – and by the look of it in this case – idle brains. Pathetic and spurious!
July 14th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
I agree Clive…these people have NO idea what Dunhill actually sells except for cigs…the same can be said for Cartier and a few others… I laughed when I saw the complaint but I actually feel sorry for the “few” people not knowing “simple” things like that. It is such a shame…and waste of blog space…
July 15th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
hehehe
July 18th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
…yeah and Vogue luxury slims launched a magazine, which worked well. Guess this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The ‘attack’ seems to have backfired now that everyone knows about the ad. I’m off to buy a bottle of Dunhill right now. Woman find it addictive.
July 20th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Cherryflava,
“Woman find it addictive”?, Really? hehe…