On billboards and in Web ads, vice president of marketing Ron Stablehorn apologizes to anyone offended by Rolling Rock's recent "Beer Ape" commercials.
The "Friends of Rolling Rock" are outraged by Stablehorn's bumbling and want him ousted.
Haven't seen the Beer Ape ad⢠Never heard of Ron Stablehorn⢠That's because both are fictional characters in a viral marketing campaign by Rolling Rock's new owners, Anheuser-Busch.
Anheuser-Busch has manufactured a controversy about a relatively mild ad, in which a costumed gorilla dances with bikini-clad girls around a pool, passing out the iconic green bottles. The result: people Google the brand and download a video of the "Beer Ape" ad on YouTube to find out what all the fuss is about.
"If the banner had said, 'Check out the Rolling Rock ad,' no one would bother," said Robert Gilbert, professor of marketing at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. "When it says, 'If you've been offended,' almost everyone has a reason to go there. ... It's perfect in that regard."
Kelley Skoloda, a partner at Ketchum Communications, Downtown, said viral marketing generates attention for a company by using outrageous, ludicrous or funny images, which create buzz and give consumers something to talk about. It typically resonates with the coveted Gen Y demographic, and is meant to spread organically, from friend to friend, rather than through a spokesman with an agenda.
But Skoloda and Gilbert agreed that the beer ape-bumbling executive campaign will get a much different response in Western Pennsylvania, since this summer Anheuser-Busch shuttered the Latrobe brewery, home of Rolling Rock beer for nearly 70 years.
"They destroyed this city," Latrobe Mayor Tom Marflak said. "It was a total slap in the face when they came in here, and just bought everything, even the green bottles."
He hasn't seen the "controversial" ads, which started airing during Thanksgiving Day football game broadcasts, but said the campaign is a continuation of what he called the "total rape" of the Rolling Rock brand.
"If they offend the 9,000 residents of Latrobe, why would Anheuser-Busch care?" said Marflak, who said he now drinks Coors Light.
According to Ad Week magazine, the campaign was created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco to help Anheuser-Busch relaunch the Rolling Rock brand. The phony marketing is meant to send consumers searching the Web for the whole "story," the magazine writes.
Anheuser-Busch representatives declined to be interviewed for this article. Spokesman Brian Eaton said the company's marketing department prefers to let the ad "seep virally" for a little longer before talking to the press.
Eaton said more than 500,000 people have gone to the campaign Web sites in about four days to find out more about the beer ape and the "offensive" ads
But Skoloda, of Ketchum, said from what she's seen of the campaign, most people don't think it's all that funny.
"I think the key to creating a viral campaign is transparency," Skoloda said. "It may not be as clear as it needs to be with this campaign."
Gilbert said the ad is unlikely to change anyone's mind in these parts.
"(The ad) is probably a whole lot less offensive than taking their jobs away from them," he said. "I'm not sure the people at Anheuser-Busch are getting great joy throwing salt in the wound, I just think it never dawned on them. They probably count Latrobe as a lost market."
