There have been many products slammed by a cultural phenomenon -- and some effects last while others don't. Perhaps the best-known product turmoil took place back in 1934, when Clark Gable took off his shirt in the movie "It Happened One Night." Director Frank Capra decided Gable couldn't take off his undershirt gracefully, so he was told not to wear one. When Gable unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a bare chest, undershirt sales plummeted. Underwear manufacturers even tried to sue the movie studio.
In more recent times, though, broccoli easily survived the first President Bush's repeated jokes about how he didn't like the vegetable -- in part because mothers everywhere insisted on serving it, and in part because of helpful research showing that it helps fight cancer.
(Fox Searchlight Pictures Via AP)
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Oprah Winfrey set off anti-beef sentiment when she declared on a 1996 show that she would not eat another hamburger after hearing about industry practices that anti-beef activists said could help spread mad cow disease. The cattlemen sued her and lost.
And then more recently, and subtly, bread became a bad word as a result of low-carbohydrate diets. But it wasn't until people who weren't even on low-carb diets began expressing "bread is bad" sentiments that the industry reacted.
Last year, several trade groups involved in bread production, including the American Bakers Association and the American Millers Association, started a $4 million marketing campaign to rehabilitate the image of bread and promote its health benefits.
The industry had thought the problem would just go away, so it probably waited longer than it should have to act, said Jean Statler, senior vice president of Wirthlin Worldwide (now Harris Interactive), which crafted the industry's response.
"It came to a head and they got panicked when . . . 2005 was the year [the U.S. Department of Agriculture] was going to redo the food pyramid," Statler said. Wirthlin began doing in-depth interviews to find out why people weren't eating bread and kept hearing the same perception: that bread isn't good for you. The ad campaign is focused on bread as a healthy food.
"You have to reframe the issues," she said. "If you just react . . . then you're just exposed the next time something like this happens."
Statler warned that a cultural slam can seem like a trifle at first but then take on a life of its own. Merlot producers, she said, can't be sure the perception won't grow. Just to protect themselves, she said, the industry could start "reminding people this is quality wine and a certain kind of grape and somehow make merlot drinkers cool again."
Or, they could just have a sense of humor about it, said Smith of Yankelovich. Sometimes, he said, making a joke right back will slough off the insult.
"Being the butt of the joke can be a good thing, as long as merlot doesn't get all snooty . . . and defensive," he said. "Try to turn this joke into something that works for them."
That's exactly what the St. Francis Winery & Vineyards in Sonoma Valley is doing, cooperating with a popular Sonoma restaurant that has created a " 'Sideways' Martini," said Nan Fontaine, a spokeswoman for the winery. The cocktail is a mix of vodka, lime juice, lemon juice, pomegranate juice -- and a generous splash of St. Francis merlot.
"If someone takes this seriously," she said, "they need to go to the movies more often."
