Don't Like - Wannabe Cool Brands
I saw this ad last night for 7-Eleven and I just had to wonder what I was watching. It was a weirdo-bizarro Fast and the Furious fever dream. Did it feature any real Gen Z people? Not really. They’re all a bunch of “cool urbanites” with wild clothes and cars seemingly having the highest production value parking lot party any 7-Eleven has ever seen. It’s “culture” in the most narrow and consumerist way possible. The whole point of the ad is that 7-Eleven has good coffee, which we know because our hero, a woman in a black leather jacket with cool jewelry and gas station rave sunglasses has chosen caffeine as her substance of choice for her night out. This, of course, misses the fact that this kind of person didn’t buy her cool gas station sunglasses to hang out at the gas station. But hey, it looks cool and got my attention, right? Like, had you ever thought about 7-Eleven this way before? Of course not. You’ve been to 7-Eleven. It probably was a thoroughly mediocre experience—unless you went to one in Japan, in which case we’ve all heard about it already.1 So why did they make this ad? My guess would be to make the 7-Eleven clients feel like their brand is cool while “tapping into culture.”2 That’s why they’ve released a streetwear line and run a series on their Instagram featuring “cool cars” in 7-Eleven parking lots. But have you ever seen someone in 7-Eleven branded merch? Is 7-Eleven the account that car enthusiasts want to have their cars featured on? My guess would be 1) no and 2) I doubt it. Why not make an ad about the hot dog that spends its life rolling on a hot cylinder getting greased up until it gets devoured instead?
If you just said to yourself, “he sounds jealous.” You’d be correct because I’ve only been to crappy American 7-Elevens and can only dream about going to an awesome Japanese one.
This is one of the sillier phrases used in brand marketing. It conjures the idea that culture is nothing more than a well of ink for brands to dip their quills into.