Since the release of the Coca-Cola ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, Scottish brand Irn-Bru has responded by releasing their own version, but without the added hassle of searching in stores to find your name. The notorious soft drink giant has released images of the traditional Irn-Bru can but without the brand name, instead they all read ‘Fanny’.
Although the images were only released recently, this isn’t the first time Irn-Bru has marketed this campaign, having sparked a controversial outroar last year. First shown in a TV advert on ITV1 during half-time of an England Euro 2012 match; numerous complaints were received by the broadcasters as the UK was subjected to a somewhat considered profanity, ‘Fanny’. Aired before the water-shed time of 9pm; parents complained that this advert had taught their children the word and wasn’t suitable to be shown.
However since this ad, and the recent input from Coca-Cola, Irn-Bru has revisited the campaign and is rumoured to soon be releasing the ‘Fanny Cans’ across the UK. Although there aren’t any solid plans to release these into stores yet, responses on social media site Twitter have shown that this is a popular idea, with tweeters waiting for the cans to be available for purchase.
Although it could be argued that the idea of using one name might alienate a large audience, what better name to choose than a traditional, comical and simply forgotten Scottish name? It certainly solves the problem in deciding which names are best to be included when personalisation campaigns like Coca-Cola’s emerge! We decided that having one name printed is better than alienating those who cannot find their name and with a little bit of light-humour we think that this promotion could succeed (as long as parents don’t mind explaining the name to their children!)