I'm looking for rituals, which are related to brands. When Manchester
United fans in the UK goes to the weekly match the always sing a
special song and dress in very characteristic cloth. What other global
(well recognized) brands reflect special rituals, songs, behaviors,
ways of consuming the brand, playing (if games) with the brand etc?
Please no Apple examples and please keep the number of sports rituals
to a minimum.

Good luck,

martin

Two "rituals" that come into my mind are the (separate) ad campaigns
for Oreos and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which show the many ways of
eating the product (some of which are rather bizarre).

Oreo:

"Do you know exactly how to eat an Oreo cookie? Well, to do it, you
unscrew it, very fast. Cause a kid'll eat the middle of an Oreo first,
and save the chocolate cookie outside for last."

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups:

"There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's."

And there's the old "How many licks does it take to get to the center
of a Tootsie Roll Pop?" That is a bit ritualistic, I think.

Thanks for that pinkfreud, funny stuff ;-)

Any chance you could search a bit more for other rituals, which has
been integrated into our behavior - reflecting our loyal relationship
with a brand?

martin

Martin,

It's bedtime for me, but I will certainly see what I can find
tomorrow. I'm sure other Researchers will be interested in this, too.

~pinkfreud

Sleep well - talk to you tomorrow afternoon when you've reach my timezone.

martin

Greetings again, Lindstrom:

One of the most interesting ones that comes to mind is the counting of
the stars in the "P" of Playboy Magazine.  "The rumor was that this
indicated the sexual satisfaction quotient of the woman on the
cover--how good they were in the sack--as critiqued by Hugh Hefner.
That's the way I heard it, anyway."  The "counting of the stars"
ritual was popular every month when I was in college... [
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mplayboy.html ]

One childhood ritual that is associated with Coca Cola is this: when
two people are speaking and they say the same thing at the same time,
whomever taps/hits the other on the shoulder first and says "You owe
me a Coke" is entitled to a free Coke.

Back in the 60s, I recall always doing the Teaberry shuffle everytime
I put a piece of Teaberry gum in my mouth.  Of course, I *was* a high
energy kid...

"Mmmm-mmm, good" - Campbell's soup comes to mind.  Every time I eat
soup (not just Campbell's), I think of "Mmmm-mmm, good".  Anytime I
hear someone say "Mmm, this is good" I think of Campbell's soup.

Offering a toast in someone's honor is a ritual brand (general) for
recognition/appreciation.

Political branding? - "America, the beautiful" has been sung at every
sports game I've ever attended.  Political, most definitely - I
suppose this is because politics is also a sport.  ;)

Tattooing - the truest of "human" branding.  In its defense, it is a
representation of the most permanent of personal expression.

I'll wager you can tell that it's late in my time zone, too.  lol

Best regards (and sweet dreams),
journalist-ga

Counting the "Ninas" in Al Hirschfeld's caricatures is a longtime
ritual.  He branded his art with his daughter's name.

"Nina is their daughter, and Hirschfeld has engaged in the "harmless
insanity," as he calls it, of hiding her name at least once in each of
his drawings. The number of NINAs concealed is shown by an Arabic
numeral to the right of his signature. Generally, if no number is to
be found, either NINA appears once or the drawing was executed before
she was born. The NINA-counting mania is well illuminated when, in
1973, an NYU student kept coming back to the Gallery to stare at the
same drawing each day for more than a week. The drawing was
Hirschfeld's whimsical portrayal of New York's Central Park. When the
curiosity finally got the best of me, I asked, "What is so riveting
about that one drawing that keeps you here for hours, day after day?"
She answered that she had found only 11 of 39 NINAs and would not give
up until all were located. I replied that the '39 next to the
signature was the year. Nina was born in 1945. (Almost all of
Hirschfeld's lithographs and etchings have NINAs hidden in them, but
Hirschfeld makes the pursuit that much more difficult by omitting the
number next to the signature.)"
From http://www.alhirschfeld.com/bios/hirschfeld.html

How Many Ninas Can You Find?
http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/jun03/hirschfeld.html

[visit here and enlarge the thumbnail images to find the Ninas]
http://www.storyopolis.com/portfolio-dbp.asp?ArtistID=141

"Another momentous Forties event was the birth of the NINAs. His
daughter Nina was born in 1945. Hirschfeld drew her name in the
background of the theatrical drawing, for the play Are You With It,
that he did that day. The flowing lines of the N I N A were
occasionally worked into the folds of drapery or strands of hair. (See
The Gin Game below.) It became a game he played with his audience. In
1956 he actually appended a numeral after his signature to tell his
fans how many NINAs he'd hidden."
http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/hirschfe.htm
[examples included]

"I remember once actually being with him and talking to him about a
drawing he had done of a revival of "Guys and Dolls." And he had said
there were five Ninas-- the number 5 appeared on the drawing. And I
said, "well, al, can you show me where those five Ninas are?" And he
went through one, two, three, four, and he couldn't for the life of
him find the fifth Nina. And then he looked very, very closely, and
there in Faith Prince's mink, in her coat, her fur coat, he found the
fifth Nina. And he says, "this could drive a person crazy." Well, I
think it did, but also it was great fun. It was a great sort of Sunday
game that people played to find those Ninas."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/jan-june03/hirschfeld.html

Best regards,
journalist-ga


SEARCH STRATEGY:

counting the Ninas
how many Ninas

Greetings, Martin!

Your Question got me to thinking about (and singing) a bunch of
jingles which became so famous that, years later, people still know
them by heart:

"Double the flavor, double the fun. Double your pleasure with Doublemint gum."

"Brylcreem -- a little dab'l do ya."

"Lifesavers -- a part of Living".

"Be All That You Can Be -- in the U.S. Army".

"Gillette -- The Best a Man Can Get".

"Two scoops! Two scoops! There're two scoops of raisins in every box
of Raisin Bran!"

Coca-Cola's 
"I'd like to build the world a home and furnish it with love;
Grow apple trees and honeybees and snow-white turtledoves
I'd like to teach the world to sing In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company.

I'd like to see the world for once all standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills "Ah, peace throughout the land" 
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company.

I?d like to build the world a home And furnish it with love;
Grow apple trees and honeybees and snow-white turtledoves
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company."

Dr. Pepper's "I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper, she's a Pepper, we're a
Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?

Royal Crown Cola's "Me and my RC".

Pepsi-Cola's "The joy of bubbles, the joy of fun, the joy of Pepsi on your tongue".

"7-Up, the Uncola"

McDonald's "You deserve a break today, so get up and get away, to McDonald's"

and "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles,
onions, on a sesame-seed bun".

Burger King's "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders
don't upset us -- all we ask is that you let us serve it your way.
Have it your way, have it your way, at Burger King".

"And like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is there". (insurance)

United Airline's "Fly the Friendly Skies of United".

Meow Mix's "Meow meow meow meow, Meow meow meow meow, Meow meow meow
meow, Meow meow meow meow" (Loosely translated "I want tuna, I want
liver, I want chicken, please deliver. now you know the cat's "meow"
means Meow Mix, Meow Mix, Meow Mix...").

Some ad slogans even developed into group participation rituals, such as:

"Bud" "WEIS" "er": the 3 frogs and Louie the Lizard.

"Whazzup??!!!" (also by Budweiser)


And one, for Life cereal, has even served as the inspiration for a movie title:
"I'm not gonna try it, you try it."
"I'm not gonna try it!"
"Hey! Let's get Mikey!"
"He won't like it! He hates everything!"
"He LIKES it! Hey, Mikey!"


But MY all-time favorite is:

"My baloney has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R; my baloney has a second
name, it's M-A-Y-E-R. Oh, I love to eat it every day, and if you ask
me why, I'll say: 'Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A."

I hope you find this fun journey through Memory Lane helpful.

And, oh yeah, I got all of these from my Mom. Really. I'm not old
enough to know about any of these personally.

Really.

ace

The questioner asked for sporting rituals to be kept to a minimum but
I'll throw in one local to my area because it's somewhat unusual.

The fans of Cardiff City Football Club perform a ritual whereby they
tap the tops of their heads with the palms of both hands
simultaneously. The origins of this ritual which is known as "Doing
the Ayatollah" are rather obscure but the most conving theory is that
it was adopted after television footage of Iranians mourning the death
of Ayatollah Khomenei showed them doing the same thing as a sign of
mourning. The club was going through a bad patch at the time and fans
adopted the ritual as their own sign of mourning for the state of the
club. The only picture I can find of anyone doing this is here
http://www.cardiffcity-mad.co.uk/news/loadsngl.asp?CID=ED43

Hello Martin

I've been following your questions and answers with great interest.
This one got me pondering rituals for pouring Guinness, Guinness
drinkers clubs and the brand in general, for instance;

"Pouring the perfect glass of Guinness is an art form"
http://www.westlifedomain.co.uk/ireland%20flag.htm

This led me to a picture of a Guinness tattoo which might interest you.

Photograph of Guinness tattoo on a guy called Metaller
http://utenti.lycos.it/METALLER/photoalbum15.html

This is Metaller:
http://utenti.lycos.it/METALLER/

And the story of another more subtle tattoo:

"The tattoo is, in fact, on my right shoulder. It's the design that
we've all seen and love, the harp on the Guinness bottle. No kidding.
I brought a Guinness label in to the tattoo parlor and paid the gal
$140 to put it on my shoulder, permanently."
http://www.savantmag.com/19/letters19.html

Metaller uses the slogan, "My goodness, it's Guinness". At one time
the association of Guinness with goodness was so strong that there was
a tradition  of giving the drink to post-natal and post-operative
patients in the UK and Ireland. I was offered some by nursing staff in
a reputable British maternity hospital in 1980.

"In England, post-operative patients used to be given Guinness, as
were blood donors, because of its high iron content. This practice
continues in Ireland.
Pregnant women and nursing mothers were at one stage advised to drink
Guinness - the present advice is against this. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3266819.stm

Best Wishes - Leli

Here's one .. but am not sure if it applies to a brand or Tequila in general ...


----------

The ritual of tequila drinking begins with placing grains of salt on
top of the fist, licking them, then, after sucking some drops of lime,
taking a drink from a fajo (the cup from which you drink tequila).
This is followed by a sip of sangrita.

TEQUILA
http://www.zihua-ixtapa.com/~anotherday/2002_2003/apr/tequila.html

---------

How to drink tequila? 

There is the macho ritual of placing a pinch of salt on the back of
the hand between thumb and forefinger, licking the salt, chucking a
shot of tequila down your throat, then sucking a lime. A lemon is an
acceptable substitute.

HOW TO DRINK TEQUILA
http://www.suntimes.co.za/1998/09/20/lifestyle/life07.htm

---------------------

-K~

Hi Martin!

How to eat a Mallomar:

?There are many ways to eat a Mallomar, but only three are officially
sanctioned for international competition: biting off the marshmallow
part and saving the graham cracker for last (superior method); biting
off the graham cracker and saving the marshmallow part for last
(dorsal method); and biting into the cookie like regular food
(lateral, or "standard," method). I am something of a Mallomar
dullard. I use the standard method. But I should add that I employ
wilder scenarios for both Oreos and Vienna Fingers (breaking them
open, eating the half with no delicious cream, then either scraping
off the delicious cream with my front teeth or, if rushed, simply
eating the other half),?
http://archive.salon.com/mwt/sust/2001/02/27/mallomars/

Eating Instructions:

MALLOMAR: Pick off chocolate coating. Suck out marshmallow middle.
Pop graham wafer in mouth
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gluttonyunlimited/message/325


Mallomars are seasonal.

The Mallowmar is not available during the summer months because the
chocolate would supposedly melt during shipping. Nabisco the company
that makes this cookie says it can only offer the Mallomar from early
October through April.

?So every September, publicists for Nabisco wisely distribute case
upon case of fresh Mallomars to editors around the country.
Subsequently, media coverage of the return of the Mallomars runs the
full journalistic gamut from the cliché (?They?re ba-a-a-a-ck!?) to
the giddy (?The Mallomars are back!?) to apoplectic (?They?re the best
cookie in the world!?).?
  
?In this case, the media is the message: Every October, you?the cookie
consumer?are expected to play the role of the loving, arduous suitor
(and fork over close to $4 for a box). And every April, you?re
supposed to shed a tear at the departure of the Mallomar and promise
not to see other cookies until October comes around again.?
Newsweek article by Gersh Kuntzman
http://gershkuntzman.homestead.com/files/The_Cookie_Crumbles.htm

Mallomars website
http://web.archive.org/web/20000510064513/http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Mallomars/Default.htm


Best regards,

Bobbie7

Another -------

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

1975 movie now completely tied midnight theatre showings and audience
participation rituals (including lines, props, costumes and makeup)
that have become formalized over the years.

From the ?The Beginning of Audience Participation? -----------
http://www.rockyhorror.com/partbegn.html

?I not only invented lines; if I heard someone else's line and liked
it, I kept it alive by integrating it with the rest of the litany.
This is how the show "went public," people inventing lines and using
the lines of others. An individual would yell a line; others would
pick it up; then a whole group and eventually the entire audience
would shout out the line together. Today, "old-timers" say that
sometimes they miss the spontaneity of a single person creating a new
line; they feel that the impact is lost when over a hundred people
yell out lines, usually out of sync, at that..."


From the Amazon review of the video --------

?Upon its release in 1975, the film was an astounding flop. But a few
devotees persuaded a New York theater to show it at midnight, and thus
was born one of the ultimate cult films of all time. ?.  much of the
amusement is found in the audience participation that is obviously
missing from a video version (viewers in theaters shout lines at the
screen and use props--such as holding up newspapers and shooting water
guns during the storm, and throwing rice during a wedding scene).
Watched alone as a straight movie, Rocky Horror loses a tremendous
amount of its charm."

AMAZON - The Rocky Horror Picture Show - The 25th Anniversary Edition (1975)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004U8PA/102-7485188-6196933?v=glance


Rocky Horror Picture Show - Website
http://www.rockyhorror.com/

Rules and Rituals of Audience Participation
http://www.rockyhorror.com/particip.html

-K~

OK, here's my contribution:

Smarties:

"When you eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last?"

Which in turn has been turned onto its head by the latest TV ads in
N.America, where an office worker 'experiments' with eating the red
ones first...

One more ...

STARBUCKS
http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/default.asp

Associated with the rituals of buying coffee on the way to work,
drinking coffee in coffee shops, coffee shops in bookstores, selecting
exotic coffees, and even making the perfect cappuccino in your home.

?Before Starbucks burst onto the national scene, drinking coffee had
rarely been so stylish. Now, orders for  "espresso", "lattes" and
"no-whip mochas" are drowning out the simpler requests of yesteryear??
http://www.cdf.org/cdf/atissue/vol1_1/starbucks/starbucks.html

The Coffee Shop
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~sajamato/cafe2.html

Exoticism and the Modern Coffee Ritual
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~sajamato/exotic_modern.html

Starbucks Barista Espresso Machine - PRODUCT REVIEW
http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-review-5C59-C8F0216-382B27A6-prod1

?Say what you will about Starbucks, they know a lot about ritual. This
machine is all about ritual?. Start the machine. Pour the milk into
the pitcher. When the light comes on, push the steamer button?.

??This sounds like a lot of things to do, and it is. But it's also
fabulous. Coffee is more than product, it's also process. Without the
process I just wouldn't be happy. If you enjoy the process too--and
you enjoy a good cup of coffee--you might want to drop by a Starbucks
and give this one a try.?


-K~

Martin,

This is a tough one. I don't know whether this qualifies as a ritual,
but I remember a national fad in the 1950s related to a slogan that
was used in ads for Winston cigarettes. The slogan was "Winston Tastes
Good Like a Cigarette Should." As delivered in the TV commercial, it
had a little melody, and included the sound of snapping fingers:
"Winston Tastes Good Like a <snap snap> Cigarette Should." The phrase
"[something] tastes good like a <snap snap> [something} should" swept
the United States like wildfire. Umpteen parodies on the phrase were
all over the media, and teenagers were using this advertising slogan
as if it were hipster-talk.

Another cigarette fad of the 1950s involved Lark cigarettes. The
company had flatbed trucks with camera crews and announcers driving
around the country. They would drive down the street exhorting
passers-by to "Show us your Lark pack" or "Show us your Lark(s)." That
became a catchphrase for a while, and local advertisers mimicked the
ad campaign by driving down the street in similar fashion, asking
folks on the street to show them a certain product. Lots of "show your
Lark" double-entendre jokes cropped up in the acts of comedians in Las
Vegas, as one might expect.

I've also left two additional suggestions in your "Color Branding" thread. 

~pinkfreud

Hello pinkfreud-ga, knowledge_seeker-ga, aht-ga, bobbie7-ga, leli-ga, 
manticore1234-ga, aceresearcher-ga and journalist-ga no no,

Thanks for your enormous contribution. It's really been some great
stuff you've found for me even though I couldn't use it all.

However this leads me to the payment - a tricky one right? Well I've
decided to pay a small fee those of you* who managed to find
information, which will end up in my book....

These are:

pinkfreud-ga - where two of your 4 contributions found it's way to the book
knowledge_seeker-ga - I'm sorry - even though you had some good stuff
non of your contributions ended in the book this time.
aht-ga - I'm sorry - nice input but....
bobbie7-ga - Bobbie you were "lucky" (or clever) this time again
leli-ga ...and so were you.
manticore1234-ga ...and you
aceresearcher-ga unfortunately you were less lucky
journalist-ga and even though you came up with some great stuff it
unfortunately didn't end in my book.

Once again thanks for your great work - keep up the good stuff - I'll
be back again with more during the week.

All the best,

martin
*NOTE: It's hard to identify who is a Google researcher and who's not
- so forgive me if I happen mix you up.

Greetings Lindstrom:

Regarding how to tell who is a Researcher, look for the names with
blue highlighted links.  :)

Best regards,
journalist-ga

Dear Martin, 

I hope this is not too late for another ritual, but the way
celebrities wear the Kangol caps (and in that, baseball caps), the
opposite of the "normal" way to wear a hat seems to me like a
ritualistic phenomenon.

(To see what it is all about: 
Janet Jackson: http://www.youthlinkjamaica.com/images/oct29/janetjackson.jpg). 

Fashion and celebs connection impact many more such trends for rituals
regarding brands. Another example may be Madonna, who outed, double
meaning and pun intended, the corssette as a legitimate piece (and
external) of clothing - again - taking it away from its original usage
and meaning.

In a certain thread we discussed chocolate marshmallows, called
"Neger-" or "Schaumkuss" in Germany
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=273618>. These had
also a ritual when I was a child: should we eat the bream first, or
the cookie? The same with Dany Sahne (Picture of Dany Sahne:
http://www.danone.de/danone_deutschland/produkte_dany/text.htm) what
do you eat first: the cream, or the chocolate underneath it?

Also the counter-culture has its impact. I mentioned before, that
celebrities wore Kangol (and others may be doing the same thing to
other pieces of clothing. Grafitti (in branding and in advertising),
is one example of usage of criminal activities in branding, including
intended and encouraged grafitti campaigns.

The theft of Mercedes symbols - the stars - and other car symbols is
another. Here, teenagers attempt to rip the star off the car.
Marcedes, by the way, markets now cars, where the star is
automatically inserted into the car when it parks...