Last Updated: Friday, January 08, 2010 Skippy Peanut Butter's Latest Commercial Puts Concertgoers In Harm's Way Updated: Monday, June 07, 2004 Skippy Peanut Butter's spokesanimal stage dives into crowd. Is Unilever Bestfoods' snack worth dying for? Photo from commercial: Unilever Bestfoods c 2004 The folks at Skippy Peanut Butter (Unilever Bestfoods) now join a long list of corporations using---what Crowd Management Strategies calls---mayhem marketing to promote and sell their products. In this case, the target audiences are pre-teens, teens and young adults. A new commercial for a Skippy Peanut butter snack bar that plays on US TV stations (possibly worldwide) uses lovable and hip cartoon elephants to hawk its sweets, much the way the controversial lovable and hip Joe Camel was used to sell cigarettes in the 1990s. The comparison is a good one. Because in both instances young people were being lured---intentionally or unintentionally---into dangerous and deadly activities made to look like innocent fun. The Skippy commercial focuses on an outdoor concert starring a reggae band of elephants using an infectious beat and catchy lyrics to sing the praises of the Unilever Bestfoods product. But, that’s not the problem. Toward the end of the song, the lead singer, a two ton behemoth, stage dives into the audience carrying the snack, and then crowd surfs. The scene is reminiscent of real rock and rap concerts where teens and young adults have been critically injured and in some cases died from these very acts---stage diving and crowd surfing. At the very least, the Unilever Bestfoods approved stunts remind Crowdsafe.com folks of the 1997 Drew Bledsoe stage dive during a concert in Boston. The 235 pound NFL Patriots footballer landed on a female concertgoer. She was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. A successful and significant lawsuit followed. (Something for Unilever Bestfoods to keep in mind.) Understandably, Unilever Bestfoods recognizes that its new product is hardly provocative or cool. But, associating it with high-risk and controversial pop culture activities puts the public in harms way. Especially, among the upcoming new generation of concertgoers who likely don't understand the extreme dangers of stage diving and crowd surfing. This is why concertgoers (and their parents) may want to think twice about purchasing a product that could end in hospital care or worse. There is a simple solution. Crowd Management Strategies highly recommends immediately removing the stage diving and crowd surfing segments of the Skippy Snack Bar commercial. That is the best way for Unilever Bestfoods to show good taste. [ home ][ crowdcafe ][ new ][ crowdshop ][ contact ] Crowd Management Strategies © 1997 - 2006. All rights reserved. Crowdsafe is a registered trademark of Crowd Management Strategies © 2006.