Advertising

Dueling Brands Pick Up Where Politicians Leave Off

By STUART ELLIOTT

Published: November 3, 2008

ELECTION Day will bring an end to the negative political advertising that has inundated the country. But it will not mean an end to negative advertising.

An image from a response ad by Microsoft meant to counter a campaign from Apple that characterizes PCs as geeky.

Multimedia

Dunkin' Teases Starbucks

Campbell Goes Negative

With a mode reminiscent of political ads, Campbell Soup, in a campaign for its Select Harvest line, attacks Progresso by name.

Dunkin’ Brands goes after Starbucks, promoting a Web site that features the results of a taste test that favored its coffee.

That is because marketers of consumer products, borrowing a page from the electoral playbook, are becoming more willing to run aggressive ads in which brands attack their competitors by name. A major reason for the growing popularity of such ads is the faltering economy, on the theory that when times are hard, you should hit your opponent harder.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/business/media/04adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin