Fun with Brand Extensions!!

I'm very into creative marketing and public relations. And, I really believe in brand extension - there are some great things done for brand extension, such as all the different brands of M&Ms - first they had the peanut and plain, but in the past few years the company has also introduced the almond M&M, the peanut butter M&M, mini M&Ms, the breast cancer M&Ms ... the list goes on and on.

Brand extension is just smart business for a consumer product - personally, I always thought that Life Savers missed the boat by not coming out with a competing cereal to Froot Loops - Life Savers cereal. It'd be a bigger seller than their gross gummy Life Savers.

So, when I see some funny brand extension, I remember it. And, this has to be the most ingenious, insane, funny brand extension in a while. The "wonderful" guy that brought us Girls Gone Wild, is now bringing "girls" Boys Gone Wild. Joe Francis, the owner of the parent company, admits that the market for Boys Gone Wild will most likely be gay males. But, the brand extension, a Girls Gone Wild CD is just pure genius. He'll probably sell tons of the CDs, and it'll be another feather in his cap. The sad part ... I actually like the songs on the CD. I feel dirty, now, from writing about this.

Now, here's brand extension gone to crap, and insulting to a religion as well! From today's Gawker, Target Pimps Kabbalah. Here's the link to buy your very own Kabbalah evil spirit red string from Target!!

Discounting how much Madonna has ruined a very spiritual and religious order of Judaism, forget that Brittney is supposedly talking about getting married in a Kaballistic ceremony (hello, idiot, you're a Baptist), forget that according to the rabbis, only a learned man can learn the Kaballah (which is basically Jewish mysticism, and where numerology comes from), and that is only after he fully knows and understands the Talmud ... well, forget all of that, and just think how other religions would react if a very serious and religious part of their religion was trivialized.
Oh, and in Judaism, you cannot have a tattoo as it's desecrating the body that was a gift ... sorry Madonna and Brittney, time to get kicked to the curb.

Okay, what's this have to do with POP! Public Relations or public relations - just that brand extension is a great way to do public relations for a new consumer product. It builds upon the good will of the older brand, and the upsides are more numerous than the downsides. Then again, there is always the possibility that the new product is such a dog, that it drags down the original...
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