The diary manufacturer Clover has started selling its fresh milk in blue bottles, as part of a new campaign to “refresh” its brand.
“We opted for blue as it is the Clover corporate brand colour, and since fresh milk is the core of Clover – it makes sense to consistently drive the Clover values and identity through our fresh milk products,” says the company.
The company says it wants “to inject some excitement and generate talk-ability in and around the fresh milk category with the ultimate aim to make fresh milk relevant again.”
It has certainly succeeded in generating “talk-ability”, but perhaps not in the way it may have wished.
After inviting social media users to guess why Clover went with the colour blue, it tweeted a curious video over the weekend.
The video features a male painted completely blue, who riffs on some of the answers in a weird high-pitched voice:
https://twitter.com/CloverWayBetter/status/1279126415472984065?s=20
The video – which has been viewed over 160,000 times – was roundly slated on social media:
I can’t believe this passed more than one person to approve and think it was a great idea 🙈 pic.twitter.com/Q3MnC1cPZK
— OH LOOK…Squirrel (@Travesty_Kruger) July 4, 2020
Ad agencies really aren't coping with working from home. https://t.co/APdZBlW0uc
— Phlynt Phlossy ©®™ (@PhilChard) July 4, 2020
Which agency did this campaign? What was the brief? Who signed this off?! I have so many questions about this #WhyCloverBlue https://t.co/EEeiwb30Ic
— Ash (@ashish_za) July 4, 2020
1981 called, they want their ad campaign back.
— Alessandro (@SandroMendace) July 4, 2020
A few users also complained of the nightmare-inducing potential of the high-pitched blue Clover man.
https://twitter.com/True_Thapz2/status/1279314878210113539?s=20
A number of users asked the company to let go of its marketing agency, and offered to put together a better ad campaign for them for free.
But others think it may have been marketing genius:
Clover's Bluebottle campaign is social media genius. Loathe it or hate it, people are talking about it till they're blue in the face. Probably cost a few hundred bucks to make, & will probably be pulled when Smurf lawyers learn about it. A case-study in cost-effective branding.
— Gus Silber (@gussilber) July 5, 2020
Say all you want, because everybody now knows that clover bottles are blue.
— Ryan (@PaikinAndEggs) July 5, 2020
