Carlton Draught’s on again-off again advertising campaign has taken a turn for the farcical with the company pulling down the ads for a second time.
The Any Excuse website was removed on Friday without an explanation and later redirected to the main Carlton website.
The move is the latest in a marketing debacle that began when senior management at Foster’s, owner of Carlton & United Breweries, overruled the marketing department and ad agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and pulled a series of ads days before they were due to air on TV.
As well as the “Tingle” ad, above, featuring a man getting “a feeling right in his goolies” another featured the mildly risque “Weenis”.
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The series of Carlton ads were finally released last week, but online only, and limited to a microsite. Despite that, copies quickly appeared elsewhere.
The move came just hours after Vincent Ruiu, group marketing manager at Carlton Brands, told the Sydney Morning Herald: “Online, it’s unable to offend anyone.”
At the time of posting, CUB’s communications team had not returned Mumbrella’s requests for a comment.
UPDATE:
A CUB spokeswoman confirmed to Mumbrella: “The campaign has now ended.”
She declined to comment on why the site was taken down just over 48 hours after it launched, or whether it is now developing a new campaign with Clemenger.
The spokeswoman said however that it is “business as usual” with the agency.
The only marketing activity currently running for Carlton Draught is the sales promotion “Mystery Prize” campaign which is being led by CUB’s below-the-line agency Apollo.