Adweek - New York, NY, USA - When my mother got married, something like 50 years ago, her family put together the equivalent of a down payment, which set her and my dad up with ... a fancy new Electrolux vacuum cleaner. (Were you expecting a house or an apartment? Priorities!)
We had no pets, so dragging the long canister vac around the house was the closest thing I knew to walking a dachshund, and it made just the right swirls and patterns on the wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room, which we weren't allowed to walk on.
But the vacuum still works and, even stranger, I have really positive associations with the brand. Still, for an Electrolux redux, to introduce super-sleek, Euro-style kitchen appliances to North America (who knew that it's Europe's top brand?), I can understand that the company would need to sidestep the 1950s ranch house nostalgia. It's like being the original Maytag Repairman at a Goth wedding.
Image-wise, it makes sense that the job went to uber-contemporary spokesmommy
Kelly Ripa. For better or worse, she embodies all the anomalies of the have-it-all, do-it-all, thirtysomething woman who might have a lavish fantasy-in-stainless-steel kitchen. To try to keep up, DDB has thrown in everything, starting with the kitchen sink, and including an online video game to search for "Kelly's bag" (clever for those who want a Kelly bag) and a contest to win a free kitchen "suite" and even a tie-in to raise money for an Ovarian Cancer Research Project.
Promotional shots taken at an evening to benefit Ovarian Cancer Research show a tiny, muscular Ripa in a flirty little dress, platform shoes and ankle tattoo, opening a wall oven and smiling provocatively. How's that for some good housekeeping?
