Less Chatting and More Chewing

by erica ~ September 25, 2008

I’m sure you’ve seen it on the train by now - Dentyne’s new “Make face time” ad campaign is sending the message that people should replace their Blackberrys, PDAs, and Internet with a piece of gum.  Um, really?Interesting campaign… especially at a time when these electronics seem to be taking over people’s lives.

According to this article in The New York Times, these ads feature sayings like “The original instant message” ; ”Send and receive” ; and “Friend request accepted.”  The underlying message of this campaign is for individuals to grow closer to each other without having to use modern technology as the medium, hence the chewing gum, which gives you fresh breathe and the confidence to get physically close to another person.

Their website, http://www.makefacetime.com/, was revealed on Monday. (What?!?.. A campaign that pushes people away from the internet is using the internet as part of their marketing tactics?) As soon as I read that there was a website related to this campaign it seemed completely ironic to me. I was relieved when I read that the site opens with a warning announcing that it will shut down after three minutes. It reads, “When people are surfing the Web, they’re missing the best part of life - being together.”

Still, I think that the new campaign is cute and original . Obviously, they are targeting the 20-30-somethings that use the internet and chew the most gum. It will be interesting to see how it gets accepted by those demographics as well as the others.