Wrigley’s 5React Campaign Misses the Boat

Written on April 2, 2010 by admin

I was contacted by a PR person recently asking if I’d gotten my 5React pack in the mail. Typically I trash a pitch, but I decided to check out the website to see what it was about. After all, I love reviewing marketing done right, right?

The 5React website is all about secrets and intrigues. When I clicked the link to find out if I was one of the “chosen,” it pulled up images from my Facebook photos and put them on the screen. This is the only cool thing about this campaign.

I asked her to send the pack, and was eager to see what Wrigley’s had up their sleeves. I had in mind the Pepsi 25 project and hoped it would rival it, or at least try.

It didn’t.

The package was black and opened to reveal a pack of their new gum, a secret code and 3D glasses (I don’t actually chew gum, by the way, so I guess this whole thing is lost on me). My husband said it was “just gum.” He did seem to chew it a while so I guess the flavor was long lasting. Still, just gum.

So I take the code and log on to 5React.com. The page was so Flash heavy it took forever to load. So I’m waiting and anticipating. And it shows some sort of weird graphic and tells me this is what the sensation of chewing the gum is like. I don’t know about you, but I don’t express my taste sensations in 3D graphics.

On the next screen it invited me to mash all my keys to make an abstract drawing with music. I could even share the images with my friends on Facebook! As if they care.

So, big fail in my eyes. I’m sorry that Wrigley paid for this.

Oh and that exclusivity? It was sent to 100,000 people.

So I ask:

• Who was the target? I don’t chew gum. Were they sending it to bloggers? Marketers? Random Facebook people?
• What does the weird abstract computer interaction have to do with gum?
• Couldn’t they have done better handing out free samples?

Posted in Advertising

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