The Demo Site

It seems there's a whole new slew of viral material that's making waves. One in particular is the introduction of the now infamous Jollibeer, the supposed alcoholic beverage you can now "upsize" with your Jollibee Combo.

Here's the first image that's been circulating online.

Jollibeer

Click to view whole image


Knowing the brand and the company, I'm 100 percent sure this is not true. Even with the post of a second image that clearly tries to prove that "hey, it's true!", based on personal experience, I know that Jollibee will never tarnish its reputation or risk losing its brand identity over such an offering. In a world full of competitors and brands struggling for market share, reputation is everything.

Jollibee video scandal
Case in point, take the Jollibee Video Scandal that happened in 2006.

Now, we all know the hullabaloo that was caused back then when a certain cellphone video surfaced on YouTube where the well-known and much-loved characters of the family-oriented brand were caught in a very compromising position, and how much press had to be released in order to repair the damage that it had done to the brand.

And I quote (from its official statement years ago):

Dear Parents,
We regret to inform you that a video depicting our well-loved Jollibee mascots in a distasteful situation is now circulating online. The material is obviously no more than someone's idea of a senseless amusement. Yet we cannot ignore the equally obvious risk of its effect on our children.

Jollibee created the mascot for kids, their wholesome fun and carefree innocence. We've worked hard and unceasingly for the mascot to earn your kids' trust and love. It would be so sad to have all this swept away by one mindless prank.

We will not let this pass, neither will we let it happen again. Be assured we are taking all necessary steps to bring the culprits into account. One thing we know we can count on is your support in countering this threat.


Yes, it is, indeed, a threat. And regardless of what the intention is now, left unchecked it could potentially ruin the brand, perhaps for a long period of time. Just as the Jollibee Video Scandal is still available for viewing up to this day, something like this could potentially cost the brand its market (one blogger comments that Jollibee could have avoided the whole mess if it had just blogged itself... good points made in that post.)

Parodies = humor = viral
Although, all seriousness aside, that poster is quite funny. I mean, just the comments on it in the blogs and on Plurk alone made it comedy gold. People loved the tagline, the expression on Jollibee's face... the entire presentation was genius! I guess for a good laugh, we tend to have one at the expense of someone else.

Here's another bit of awesome Pinoy humor in the form of a parody of Facebook: FaceBuko.com. I highly suggest that you read through the entire page, and just absorb the sheer hilarity of it. The wit and humor of the FaceBuko page are just wonderful!

I especially love the bit about Gloria eating at Restaurant City for $35,000. ROFL!

That said, I guess we just have to take it for what it is: A bit of harmless fun. But in a digital world where information gets passed on at an insane pace, with us Filipinos so keen on sharing, that bit of harmless fun tends to do more harm than good.

I don't know about you though, but I could use a beer and sisig right about now. I guess their fake ad was effective.


Source URL:
http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/sensiblenetnonsense/post.htm?id=63013017&scid=hm_bl