Marketing has a story about an attempt in the United States to rebrand swine flu. Swine flu is hitting consumption of pork products (not that you can really catch flu from a sausage) so officials are trying to persuade us to talk instead about the ‘2009 H1N1 virus’.
Well good luck with that.
The marketing industry has a long history of using cuddly animals to bring a brand to life. In fact the ITV Digital Monkey famously proved more durable than the brand and has moved on to promote PG Tips.
So what chance that we can forget about pigs and think about a row of numbers instead? Pretty slim I would think. They would be better off trying to associate the flu virus with another even cuter small animal – perhaps the ubiquitous meerkat could be a useful fall guy?
Or how about ‘piglet flu’? Sounds much friendlier, and it already has its own viral!
