CHEETOS. IRRESISTIBLE OR IRRESPONSIBLE?

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco is launching for Cheetos the campaign Orangeunderground, a 'lose coalition dedicated to Random Acts of Cheetos', including a site, tv commercials, a youtube channel, and inviting people to add videos. I love the tv ads and the whole creative concept. But there are other types of reaction: Bob Garfield, the famous adage columnist, finds the campaign 'irresponsible' and rates it 'zero stars'.

'But here's a question: What should we think when a leading national advertiser borrows a marketing strategy from the drug trade? Here's an answer: It's cynical and disgusting. Not quite as disgusting as the 1994 Nintendo campaign that encouraged teenagers to defy adults and "Hock a loogie at life," but plenty disgraceful in its own right, because there is another word for Random Acts of Cheetos: vandalism. The Cheetos Underground explicitly incites its shadowy network of crap eaters not only to perpetrate mischief but to document their petty crimes on video for the Cheetos website.'