For years government has led the field in advertising, but private industry is finally picking up on the lead of many government officials. The technique, dubbed "smear campaigns", has now been successfully adopted by many major corporations.
The Coca-Cola corporation was first private company to use the technique, with their "Because Pepsi
may cause cancer" campaign. A spokesman from Coca-Cola justified this move in a press release earlier
this month. "Although there is no evidence that PepsiCo brand colas do cause cancer, and in fact most
studies show no definite link, the Coca-Cola corporation thinks it would be negligent in not reminding the
people of the risk, no matter how minute." The spokesman refused to comment further, except when he
paused briefly to say "drink cold, refreshing Coke" before retiring from the press conference.
Several new campaigns are on the table, such as Toilet Duck's "Mr. Clean is gay" slogan and Fisher Price's sinister, black and white depiction of a Lego man, with the caption "Would you trust your children with him?" Bottled water giant Montclair soon be printing the words "Natural Springs Water - Poison?" on all of its advertising material. Ford has attacked Toyota with the catchy jingle "Toyotas are the crashiest" , which led Toyota to hastily call a press conference to state that "...there is no independent evidence that suggests our fine automobiles are indeed the crashiest."
Industry analysts say the trend is promising, and it is only a matter of time before corporations pay celebrities to say that they would never even consider using a competing product.
