The picture above is a scan of Dove® dark chocolate wrappers. The printed messages are on the inside of the wrapper.
The first wrapper states, "When two hearts race, both win." The second wrapper states, "Wink at someone driving past today."
Dove® chocolates are good. REALLY good. Especially the dark chocolates. But these labels are dumb.
NOT necessarily dumb because both pieces of advice are silly - "Both hearts racing" works for deer and deer hunters. "Winking at someone driving past" can lead to an exchange of pepper spray.
These labels are dumb because they do not connect the customer with the product in a way meaningful enough to warrant Dove® paying for the Promises® registration. Here's why...
The premise is good - create a way for customers to connect the product to the primal driver within the customer. That "primal driver" is a spirit of indulgence, of luxury. However, there are some hurdles to get past - chocolate is fattening, relatively expensive and unnecessary. By associating a clever phrases that incite "indulgent thinking" (passion, mild naughtiness), Dove® hopes its customers embrace this little bit of fun and associate it with the Dove® experience.
But, these cute sayings fall way short of the mark. Again, the advice is bad. But even WORSE (from the marketer's point-of-view), the advice doesn't make the reader think about Dove® chocolate!
Dove® could have had much better Promises®.
"This chocolate might be the naughtiest thing you do this afternoon. Eat two."
"Go ahead. You're skinnier than her, anyway."
"You have to work hard for chocolate like this, so the calories don't count."
"Take me shopping (hunting, fishing, climbing, working, etc.)"
(sigh)
Clearly, the copywriter was working over their lunch hour on this stuff and probably not eating chocolate.
In the meantime, I'm hoping the next wrapper my wife gets says, "Get a job to pay for the engine overhaul on the wreck laying in the garage."
Now THAT is indulgent thinking.
And I'd buy her Dove® chocolates. Often.
