Dueling Campaigns
Cable’s marketing types were caught a little bit off-guard Nov. 17, when EchoStar rolled out its harshly negative “Stop Feeding the Pig” ad campaign comparing cable operators to, well, pigs. Launching the same day as CTAM’s pro-cable national ad campaign (“OnlyCableCan”), EchoStar’s www.StopFeedingThePig.com hypes the 40% rise in cable rates over the past five years, suggesting consumers subscribe to Dish Network instead. “We’ve always stressed positive messages for our campaigns,” one cable marketer told us. “We may have to rethink that.” CTAM responded by putting “Satellite Can’t” messages on its www.OnlyCableCan.com site, highlighting cable’s on-demand services and local HDTV channels. CTAM got the top 10 MSOs to sign off on the OnlyCableCan campaign