(almost) always thinking

It appears that a depressed economy results in (sometimes misleadingly) uplifting marketing and content.

Marley and Me (major spoiler follows), about an uncontrollable Labrador and his hapless owners has cleaned up at the US and UK box office. It was marketed as a lightweight comedy, but I saw it over the weekend and it seems they forgot to mention that the dog dies at the end.  The cinema was packed with people obviously wanting to see something cheerful – but they actually started to walk out when it became clear that the doggy wasn’t going to make it.  I stayed ‘til the bitter end and cried…

On a more cheerful note, Honda are re-running their Impossible Dream ad starting this week and Comic Relief pulled in 12.7M viewers, including for this rather fab special from Outnumbered:

first direct (who are a client of OnVisible, work’s online PR division) are launching a social media campaign about the little things that make a big difference to someone’s day, which looks like it’s going to focus heavily on making people happy.

Its seems that consumers are really responding to anything uplifting. Maybe the best opportunity for brands to engage at the moment is to offer a ray of sunshine amidst the economic gloom.