Prep-Unit Pimps Smirnoff Raw Iced Tea

I'm not really sure what to say about this viral video ad featuring "Prep-Unit" pimping Smirnoff Raw Tea, an alcoholic product, so I'll just provide some links to other folk's coverage beginning with where I found it.

ThirdWay Advertising Blog:
Smirnoff Tea Partay - Preppies on YouTube
Smirnoff and BBH have hit the mark with this spot . . . by embracing Ice Tea’s geekiness instead of trying to run away from it.  Improperly launched, alcoholic ice tea would probably have all the appeal of a lime wine coolers.  By confronting ice tea’s prissy image head-on, Smirnoff gives this new product a fighting chance.

Marketing Vox:
BBH Viral Vid for Smirnoff Raw Tea Takes Off
[The clip was] produced by Bartle Bogle Hegarty . . . [and] directed by music video veteran Julien Christian Lutz of HSI Production.

Tea Guy Speaks:
Smirnoff Raw Tea Partay
If you'd like to find out a little more about what Raw Tea is, good luck to you. Smirnoff has a Tea Partay Web site set up here. As of right now, it just redirects to the Smirnoff Ice Web site, which features a small banner ad for the product and nothing more.

The Corner:
Tea Partay: Smirnoff Raw Tea commercial
I lived in Scarsdale, NY for 6 years - we vacationed on Martha's Vineyard for 3 summers.  It will be interesting if something this spot on & funny can be used to spur actual sales of what is likely a bad tasting drink.

My general impression is that they put out a video that took off before they were quite prepared to deal with the response.  While I think you should always prepare for the best, at least they've got a hit to contend with.

Update:
A comment by "Anonymous" led me to a somewhat heated discussion that broke out on Adfreak regarding this video with some attempts to get serious by MultiCultClassic's HighJive and Knock The Hustle's Hadji Williams.

If you check out the exchanges, you may find Hadji somewhat heavy handed but I'm sympathetic since that's often my m.o. in such situations as well, though I'm trying to move away from that because weaklings everyday people just can't handle it.  Note that not only do commenters immediately go to personal attacks on Hadji, but they don't really engage HighJive's more light handed approach with any interest in the deeper elements of his critique either.

This exchange reminds me of one of my experiences pointing out what I considered racist comments by Steve Hall at AdRants.com when he once broke into pseudo ebonics while discussing a campaign related to black people.  I would stop checking for AdRants entirely but Steve actually covers more hip hop related campaigns than most of the big ad blogs, so I bite the bullet, but it doesn't make me happy.

Comments

[No Cameras Please]

I wonder who wrote this! Its so on point. lol

[Anonymous]

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2006/08/straight_outta_.html#comments

[Anonymous]

the video was shot by little x. shouldn't that counter any charges that the video depicts potentially racist imagery?

[Clyde Smith]

I don't think so, though many would agree with you.

Once you start analyzing how a chunk of media or art functions in the world, the creator's intent and personal background just can't be used as a final word on what's actually coming through in their creation.

To a large degree, that kind of perspective is a copout that's used to deny culpability on the part of creators. It also buys into the notion that a piece of media or art can only mean what the creator intends it to mean, which I think is a relatively naive notion of how art and media are made meaningful by people's reception of that work.

On the other hand, Little X's involvement sure explains a lot of the spot on details in the video.

I personally didn't take it as a racist work and I think both hip hop videos and preppy white folks get parodied here. Which is not to say I don't think it's a topic worth considering, as I indicate by my discussion of what occurred at Adrants.

[krystal]

i just wanted to know if anyone knew where to find more info on PREP unit..like their names and stuff....

[Clyde Smith]

Krystal, assuming you're serious, Prep Unit is not a group. They are actors brought together to do a video.

Sorry.

[Cape Cod Blogger]

If you have lived on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,you would probably see that this video is lampooning a lifesytle that really exists there, especially with the "nuvo" rich young of the wealthy that play there in the summmer months.

[Maddy]

omg! I LOVE THIS VIDEO! It's the best thing since sliced bread! A must watch!

[Taylor]

If you like this you should find so Dynamite Hack they do some good stuff!!!

[CCLL]

The video was meant to attract the nouveau riche (CapeCodBlogger: ...nuvo?) children and grandchildren of middle-class Boston and New York Irish, Italian, and Jewish families who have "engaged" the "preppie" life-style through unbridaled consumerism and mimicry of perceived well-to-do attitudes. This is best unto attested through the code language of pretenses, distinct brand names, and money. It will likely attract the same consumerism from an audience that has sustained Ralph Lauren and post-Asian by-out Brooks Brothers, unrestrained collegiate "collar-popping," and interest in private school --not traditional preparatory school-- alumna Birnbach's halfway-informed "guidebook."

[spenster]

I'd take this ad seriously if I were you...there's nothing else more important going on the world.

[ads]

its funny because if you HAVE lived on the vineyard you would know that people like that ONLY vacation there. its sad that they are so associated with the island...but i f'n love that they make fun of the mfs.