Jan
24
Joe’s Crab Sh*t
By
Since this is a blog about ‘virtuous advertising’, when I saw the latest Joe’s Crab Shack commercial this morning I leaped out of bed to post it for everyone to see. Based on this ad, I’m not sure who Joe’s target audience is. Since the ad features a family dining at the restaurant, one would think that it was aimed at young families, however after each of the each of the two children say “Oh Shit!” following their parents, I’m starting to think otherwise. Is the restaurant trying to target teens and young adults who may find this funny? I’m still not sure what Joe’s Crab Shack was thinking, but the ad has already been banned on FOX, Turner Network, and The Discovery Channel.
5 Comments
January 25th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
slightly offbeat and a low dose of humor… But will it grow the brand?
You are right Liz! Even if I find it funny, the last thing I want is “to get my family talking” and have my kids parroting the ad… My take-away is negative. Bad Joe’s.
Evan for teens and/or young adults without kids, the humor needs to be better connected to the brand and the quality of the crablegs. Ads MUST give people something to talk about — just just the same old sh*t.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:49 am
I definitely don’t think that it is aimed at young families and if it is, its aiming a little too low and just damages the legitimacy of the brand. It has more of a Long John Silver’s feel than a decent restaurant.
On Professor Edwards’ point, the humor isn’t connective its just a short term laugh factor, not something that makes someone reflect on the brand.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
After looking at the “Joe’s Crab Shack” website I do think that their intention was to target who they believe their ‘audience’ is. Although they didn’t quite connect the humor to any aspect of their food, I think they have been aiming their ads towards consumers who appreciate humor.
As the Joe’s Crab Shack website puts it, “We stand for kicking back. Having a sense of humor. Getting your hands dirty. Good food and good friends. For being real and a little weird. That’s what we call service.”
-retrieved from Joescrabshack.com under the ‘about’ section
I think they hit it right on with the fact that they say they stand for having a ‘dirty sense of humor.’ On the other hand, they say they stand for ‘good food’ yet they made no mention of that in the ad. I guess Joe’s was aiming for a purely brand essence commercial.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Regardless of whether they targeted who they type of customer they were aiming for, it still makes me not want to go Joe’s. Chili’s and TGIFriday’s also aim for that type of customer but don’t do it with dirty jokes that make the brand seem like trash.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
I agree with all the comments above. I think its pretty cheap humor. It seems to me like it’s targeting people in their late twenties who definitely do not have children of their own yet. Maybe newlyweds. Definitely not a tasteful, classy ad, but then again it is Joes Crabshack. I guess when I think about it, it seems to fit in perfectly with the Joes Crabshack tye-died t-shirts and sort of the whole feel and personality of Joes Crabshack in general. I can definitely see why it was banned though. Children are supposed to be innocent and well mannered not yelling “oh shit!” over some crab legs at a restaurant.