o truth to these rumors, the company worried sales would decline if the rumor continued to circulate. Therefore, they spent resources to launch a major ad campaign that set the record straight and was supported by the NAACP.
The second article is entitled Madison Avenue Gets Grimmer. This article discusses how the events of September 11, 2001, have had an impact on advertising and marketing. Madison Avenue is not immune to the sensitivity of the subject among Americans. Snapple Beverage and other companies rushed to the aid of New Yorkers in a variety of ways during the catastrophe. However, from movies to Snapple Beverage ads, images planned to help market products had to be rethought after September 11. As Khermouch (45) notes, “The first reaction was to rush drinks to an emergency staging area. Later came debate over whether to proceed with several new products—including one with a suddenly inaccurate image of the New York skyline cut into the glass bottle.” Getting back down to earth in terms of spending and tone has been the main effect on advertisers. However, as we see from the opening example of the Snapple Collapse Into Cool! ad, public reaction and perceptions matter as much as the content of the ads.
The third article is entitled Still A Contender. This article describes how Quaker Oats lost $1.4 billion in its purchase of Snapple Beverage. It did so because it overpaid for the company and then changed its highly successful “quirky” ad campaign. The inability to reach consumers through its retailored ads is depicted in this article as one of two reasons Quaker had to sell the company at a huge loss to Triarc for $300 million, “The keys to making Snapple work will be restoring the brand’s quirky image through creative marketing...something Quaker simply wasn’t able to do” (Fondiller 016D).
The topic herein, advertising and public relations, pervades all three of these articles. They re...