Ravers sniffing powdered sausages?

What the fuck did Bifi’s product development unit have in mind when they thought of their new ‘guarana sausage snack’? I didn’t know that pot smoking and tripping was allowed in corporate research and development units.

The first time their advertising attracted my attention, I was sure that this was some kind of hoax or at the most a teaser for something completely different. But, fail on my side, THEY ACTUALLY MEAN IT!

So, what do we conclude from their initiative? What do we read into this new strategy?

1. Bifi regards teenies and early twens as an unexploited target group.

2. Bifi is obviously aiming at suburban and rural ravers and pill kids. Wow, now this is a sustainability approach that gets my full admiration. Why? Because Bifi seems to think: if I can win over this target group as consumers while they are still developing their personalities and lifestyles, they might remain as loyal customers in the future and switch to the regular Bifi snacks for themselves and possibly even their kids, once their “wild” days are over?

3. Bifi expects more sales and new revenue streams by introducing a product that – unlike their other snacks – will be consumed at night, instead of during the day?

I can’t help giggling when I think about both product and campaign. You sort of imagine a wild underground techno party and neon clad disco nerds putting bits of sausage in each others mouths where they traditionally used to feed each other pills.

Worse still: picture hordes of pill dealers without income because their customers refrain from the thrill of obtaining illegal energy boosters and settle for the more comfortable acquisition of power sausages in supermarkets and at garages. Poor sods. I fear an increase in street crime already!

The one that really has me in stitches is imagining a bunch of ravers on a club toilet grinding an energy  sausage with their credit cards and sniffing sausage powder like there’s no tomorrow.

Nothing against innovations in general. But, this, my dear friends at Bifi, is one of those products and campaigns the world doesn’t need and without a doubt won’t be remembered… except for those at Bifi whose heads will roll once recognizing the fail becomes inevitable.

Yours.

Brian B. Ashes