Comparative advertising as a weapon against competitors
Coca–cola against Pepsi
The advertising wars between the sweet soda producers have been going on since the mid-1980s. While Coca Cola has traditionally been a favourite drink of families, Pepsi has focused all its efforts on attracting the attention of young people. Despite the different positioning of the brands, a similar product has been fighting for leadership for almost a century.
It is mainly Pepsi that is attacking. As such, Coca Cola does not participate in this battle, occasionally restyling its centenary logo in a subtle way and watching Pepsi's efforts in this regard.
Pepsi has used the image of a competitor in its advertising dozens of times. Such advertising claims are not new, and the creativity of advertising attacks only continues to grow.
Pepsi Belgium has created a provocative Halloween advert in which a Pepsi can is "dressed up" as a Coca-Cola can. The advert was posted on Facebook, both on the Pepsi Belgium page and the Ads of the World page.
"We wish you a scary Halloween" ("We wish you a scary Halloween") - this is the message of the advert.
The response was not long in coming. Coca-Cola released a retaliatory advert with a similar image and changed text "Everyone wants to be a hero"Everybody wants to be a hero.
Burger King against Mc donalds
Burger King attacked its competitors by telling how Ronald McDonald sometimes prefers to visit Burger King while hiding behind a cloak.
In 2002, a commercial appeared on the German market. Burger King made Ronald McDonald, a clown, the main character of the advert, who comes to a competitor's restaurant, hiding under a cloak and hat, and orders "as usual". The waitress says to Ronald: "See you tomorrow".
Another attack was an advert in which Burger King compared the sizes of burgers and emphasised its advantage "Big Mac? More like a medium one"
But McDonald's responded: "Stupid Whopper, it's a Big Mac box"
In 2011, the German branch of McDonald's played a joke on a competitor. In a TV spot produced by the DDB Tribal Group advertising agency, a boy repeatedly tries to have lunch on a playground. Each time, older children take away his McDonald's bag with fries and a burger. However, the child manages to eat when he puts the food in a Burger King bag. This time, everyone passes by - no one pays any attention to him.
Advertising battles within car brands.
BMW is considered to be the instigator of the advertising battle, having been the first to challenge Mercedes in the early 2000s. The Bavarian concern placed a billboard on which the BMW X5 crossover appeared as a predator (leopard) and the Mercedes ML as a prey (zebra).
A BMW advert soon followed with the slogan: "Mercedes can also be a pleasure to drive".
This advert was released in 2003, and in 2005 BMW managed to overtake Mercedes in terms of the number of cars sold in the premium segment for the first time.
Another battle between German manufacturers BMW and Audi took place in 2009 in California. Audi presented its new Audi A4 model with a billboard that read: "Chess? No thanks. I drive better."
Mercedes-Benz also teased its rival in the 2010s. BMW, which celebrated its 100th anniversary that year, received several congratulations from its rival. In one of them, Mercedes reminded us who is "the leader of the luxury segment in the automotive industry.
And in another, he stressed that the brand is 30 years older than the anniversary ("Thank you for 100 years of competition, the previous 30 were really boring").
Most often, the "wars" involve BMW and Mercedes or BMW and Audi. But sometimes Audi also allows itself to play a joke on Mercedes:
The competition for advertising ideas and budgets was not just between the Big Three. BMW played a joke on the Jaguar brand:
The Audi brand has stood up to other car manufacturers in the Four Keys video:
