To celebrate “Esfiha Day”, Habib’s decided to provoke its main competitors and launch new flavors of its main product inspired by snacks from the fast-food brands McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell.
The themed esfihas will be sold in all Arab food chain stores until the end of the month.
The action “Bib’sfihou Geral” was developed by the agency AlmapBBDO. According to the agency’s executive creative director, Rodrigo Almeida, the idea was to get away from the traditional campaigns broadcast on TV and social networks and suggest the creation of a product that made mention of competitors, which was accepted by Habib’s.
“Potatoes, snacks and soft drinks all have them, but esfiha is just for us”, says Almeida.
“That’s why we decided to honor the competitors and their iconic flavors.”
In the “tribute” to the four competitors, the list of ingredients of the new flavors includes a “special sauce” to cover the tacos in the sfihas in the “Bigg Sfiha”, “Esfiha do Rei”, “Tacco Sfiha” and “Chicken Sfiha” versions. .
Legal
Despite not directly mentioning the name of the other fast-food chains in the action, the “Bib’sfihou Geral” campaign brings the presence of competitors not only in ingredients and flavors.
In one of the brand’s publicity pieces, the Habib’s genius appears alongside the mascots of McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell. In the image, competitors appear blurred. In another image, a sandwich appears blurred with the caption “This one is for you who love one…”, a direct allusion to the Big Mac, a popular McDonald’s snack.
According to the executive creative director of Almap BBDO, Rafael Gil, in addition to the partnership with the brand, the creative process of this campaign also involved the active participation of the legal body of the Arab food chain.
He says that because it is a “bold” idea that alludes to other companies, some ideas ended up being barred for fear of possible lawsuits. “This is a bold campaign,” says Gil.
For the president of Cenp-Meios – system of the Advertising Market Self-Regulation Forum -, Luiz Lara, brands can think of actions with a joking tone, as long as they respect ethical limits.
“Advertising is an exacerbation of reality and it is up to creative freedom even if, with ethics, lightness and good humor, it provokes competition.”
Provocations
The strategy of provoking competitors is not restricted to Habib’s within the fast-food sector. Burger King has been teasing McDonald’s for a long time, from a campaign showing the rival’s executives’ grills — to show that they like their burgers cooked on a fire, not on the grill — to offering promotions for the competitor’s customers. .
In another advertisement, Burger King even encouraged its customers to “burn” McDonald’s ads. This campaign won awards from the Cannes Lions festival, which has the Estadão as official representative in Brazil.
This type of competition-provoking strategy is often common in “challenging” brands, which do not have market leadership. However, in some cases, the competition may not understand campaigns as friendly.
In 2017, Burger King ran a Halloween commercial in which it featured a “scary clown” in reference to its competitor. At the time, the network promised to distribute free sandwiches to those who dressed up as the clown Ronald McDonald’s, the mascot of the fast-food chain.
McDonald’s, in turn, did not see much fun in the campaign and filed a lawsuit with the National Advertising Self-Regulation Council (Conar) asking for the suspension of advertising in the country.
Months later, in July 2018, the agency recommended that Burger King remove all campaign pieces from the air. The recommendation, at the time, was accepted by the company that created the advertising film.
It is worth mentioning that, in cases such as the lawsuit involving McDonald’s and Burger King, Conar’s decisions do not have the character of law or punitive effect. As it is a private entity, the ethics council of the self-regulatory body evaluates the complaints and only recommends to the brand the suspension, or not, of the campaigns. The decision to withdraw the material rests entirely with the advertisers.
When asked about the current Habib’s campaign, Conar reported that, so far, the agency has not received any action from competitors requesting that the piece be analyzed by the ethics council.
The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.
Source: CNN Brasil
Joe Jameson, a technology journalist with over 2 years of experience, writes for top online news websites. Specializing in the field of technology, Joe provides insights into the latest advancements in the industry. Currently, he contributes to covering the world stock market.
