In 1983, the coffee business in the U.S. was bad, very bad. The decline in coffee drinking was steep, and people coming of 'coffee age' were busy getting their caffeine from Coke, Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Coffee was disgusting, washed up, old fashioned!
Of course, it did not help that the airwaves were filled with all kinds of negative image advertising. Dr. Marcus Welby--I mean, actor Robert Young, was calmly telling high strung moms to switch to decaf before they had a nervous breakdown. And Folger's coffee was being touted by a grey-bunned grandmother, Mrs. Olsen, who would barge in on newlyweds to rescue the befuddled wife who was too stupid to make coffee that was drinkable.
Talk about an image problem! Either it was bad for you or bad for your marriage..or both. Apparently, you needed a course in chemistry to make the stuff or your husband would run off with an aging Swedish chick who had the secret to decent caffeination.
Into this much came some fresh faces in an ad agency. They were fresh all right, becuase between the two of them, they didn't look like they'd be served a beer in a dark pub, but Bill Vernick and Susan Spiegel were both over 30.
They were given a simple assignment: get that Mrs. Olsen off the air!!! Make a commercial that will beat her 'memorability' scores. (Not easy when she had been on air for 15 years or so.) And please, could you update the image of coffee, and maybe bring in a few drinkers under the age of 50, so there will be a coffee category in the future??
The strategy was quite simple. Let's actually talk about What Makes Coffee Great. Facts told us that people drank it mostly in the morning. Well, duh! This was not big news. Just, at that time, no one was saying it. In fact, let's actually admit it: we like waking up with the stuff!!!
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