Marketing Hit or Miss – Healthy Choice

Companies that advertise on television try so hard to get and hold your attention. They want you to learn about their products, build recognition and get that sale. With so much advertising bombarding us at every turn, it’s getting harder to be heard above the din.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus image: Zuma Press

And since it’s harder to get noticed, companies try all kinds of ad campaigns to sell their products. Trying to be clever, instead of just telling you about the product. Or strange. Or annoying.

Currently, Healthy Choice is falling into that category with their new ads featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The concept is all wrong. Dreyfus’ agent is trying to get her some new gigs. He offers her the position of Healthy Choice spokesperson. And in each commercial, she complains about it, saying that she doesn’t want the job. In fact, she goes on at length about how much she doesn’t want the job.

The result? People are left with the impression that she doesn’t like Healthy Choice. That they shouldn’t like Healthy Choice. It’s rarely a wise decision to feature negativity such as this. Because all people will remember is Julia Louis-Dreyfus and how she doesn’t like Healthy Choice.

It’s a marketing failure, in my view. I’d be interested to find out whether Healthy Choice’s sales have gone up or down since the campaign started. It doesn’t make me want to buy the product. What about you?

Is this a hit or a miss for the frozen dinners? You can see some of the ads below.