By Rick Stanton
Have you seen Celebrity Cruises’ TV spot featuring the song, “White Rabbit,” by Jefferson Airplane on an album titled “Surrealistic Pillow?”
If you aren’t as old as I am, you may have no idea about Jefferson Airplane, the Alice in Wonderland reference in the song or the dynamics of the ‘60s, such as smoking dope, taking acid or Vietnam. Two of those three things I did not participate in, just so you know.
Grace Slick, the lead singer for the Airplane, wrote the White Rabbit song. It’s essentially a slap at parents who read books like Alice in Wonderland to their kids (which scared the crap out of them) and then wonder why the kids ended up taking drugs. And now it’s the primary audio driver for the current TV campaign for Celebrity Cruises?!
Once again, this demonstrates the clueless ad creatives and their even more clueless clients. History is an important part of creating advertising—perhaps even more important than an understanding of pop-culture trends sometimes.
I’m quite sure the use of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit is an inappropriate use of background music for the brand, whose demo, the last time I looked, was “old.” UNLESS…they’re trying to attract people to a cruise where the primary goal is to get smoked up, which, I suppose, is a possibility.
I’d opt, instead, for scenes like…All you can eat buffets—and the boat has to dock because they’re all out of food…Massive heart attacks after people eat the entire chocolate fountain and plunge themselves into a sugar coma…And having their LDL soar to new, artery clogging heights.
But, no. The curse of cleverness (and 25-five-year-old creative teams) rears its ugly head yet again. Trying to show potential consumers the “fantasy” aspects of a great cruise could probably be done with a little more respect for the customer base—sans a song we listened to in 1967.
The current ad might have made more sense for a cruise line in, say…1967.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbit_(song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28NcvcfqoBg
Rick:
First of all, you completely overlooked the fact that the woman in the cruise commercial is a babe. So there’s that. But, yes, that IS a weird, wholly nonsensical song choice. Maybe “Sea Cruise” or “Beyond the Sea” might have worked better—and would be more immediately recognizable to the octogenarian target demo. Or the theme from “Love Boat.”
This reminds me of the approach agency types take to casino advertising—always showing young, moneyed hipsters playing slots, etc.—while having a grand time and laughing their asses off—and winning huge amounts of money in the process.
How about a TV ad featuring the actual habitues of casinos? Lifetime smokers, sad-faced oldsters and folks blowing the last remains of their social security money—and doddering people pulled up to slot machines while leaving plenty of room for their oxygen tanks?
Best, Pat Cashman
Maybe they could up the budget a bit and employ a CGI of Timothy Leary. “Celebrity Cruises – when you’re REALLY ready to take a trip”.
Rick – Upon first seeing this spot, I thought the same thing. How did a drug anthem from the sixties (by the way I did all three) become the audio here…clueless creative is an understatement. Perhaps its just another example of co-opting the over-worn principals of marketing by a generation that lacks understanding of the power these principals can derive (see any of the communication ploys mobilized in the current state of our politics).
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