The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Coca-Cola Superbowl ad showing a someone sleepwalk through the African savannah might have been a rip-off of an Israeli dairy ad that ran several years ago. The storyline, cuts, and even background music (Ravel’s Bolero) of the two are almost identical. (Below is a youtube comparison of the two.)

Whether it is plagiarism, creative borrowing, or an unusual coincidence remains to be seen, but whatever the outcome, Coke’s reputation is being tarnished. Will they or their agency (Wieden+Kennedy) feel the worst of it?

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Roughly 65% of the Super Bowl viewers are male, and making under $100,000 per year in household income. This year, though, a majority of the ads didn’t really seem to effectively target that demographic. Most were not funny or interesting to the average male football fan. On the other hand, several were emasculating (FloTV, Dodge Charger, Audi), one exhorted men to pamper their skin (Dove), and another showed males as ignorant (Bud Light).

Some ads tried (GoDaddy, E-Trade), but they weren’t really original. They were mostly just the ump-teenth repeats of concepts that succeeded a long time ago, as if it isn’t necessary to come up with original material for this demographic.

In my opinion, it’s not that marketers don’t know who their demographic is. Rather, it seems that they don’t think that they need to cater to it. Any other thoughts out there?

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