My initial reaction to the new Snickers campaign that is gracing the sidewalks and subways of New York City was, “wow, this is REALLY corny!”

As I began to see more executions of the campaign on New York City Subways, the campaign began to grow on me a little bit (I realize that this is not actually the first time that this campaign has run, but it is the first time that it has caught my attention) after all, how many ways can you make people care about a candy bar on a NYC subway?

In thinking about this particular execution, the term culture jamming comes to mind. While this campaign does not fit the exact definition of culture jamming, it does poke fun at pop culture in an artful way (I guess “artful”  is open for debate). More than simply addressing pop culture, this campaign addresses a specific segment of pop culture that may only be fun for NYC subway riders. NYC subway riders have long seen silly, redundant ads from the infamous Dr. Zizmor; so in  looking more at this ad, as I was packed like a sardine in an NYC subway car, I had to smile.

This campaign may not exactly be brilliance in action (and it may not sell candy bars) but it did pass the time.

Upon entering my apartment, I transferred my photos from my iPhone to my computer and began to complete this post (which was almost complete on the subway ride–thank you iPhone). I did a search for, “doctor feedzmore” in order to find out who created this campaign and came up with one search result, one!!! No paid ads, nuthin!

This was the perfect opportunity to begin a dialog between a brand and a consumer. Sure, I am not your everyday consumer, as my interests were in the advertising campaign. Still, I wonder how many people went to Google to continue the conversation after seeing these ads. In my opinion, the nominal cost required to continue this conversation (via search) is nothing in comparison to the opportunity for a continuation of the overall engagement.

Unfortunately things of this nature continue to happen; the minute I begin to think that traditionally minded agencies are starting to understand, and leverage new media channels to create true integrated initiatives, I am let down. I realize that often times there is a bottleneck when it comes to budget and other practical matters, but it is the media strategists job to present a comprehensive strategy in the conception phase, and search/conversation can no longer be bolted on as an after thought.

If you are not versed in search marketing, allow me to show you the reason that the Snickers site is not showing up in the organic results. The first image is what a user sees (full flash goodness) and the second is what Google sees (hmmmm…what is that?!)

Looks a bit different, huh!?

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