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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/business/media/04walker.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/business/media/04walker.html?_r=1&oref=slogin</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>LONDON,
Sept. 3 — Drivers heading north out of Beirut through the suburb of Jal
el Dib have been greeted in recent days by a billboard for Johnnie Walker
whiskey stretching across the side of a multistory building and showing a
drawing of a bridge with a chunk missing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/09/04/business/04walker.1.ready.html',%20'04walker_1_ready',%20'width=357,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')"><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=190 height=302
id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C6D214.49ED86C0"></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=caption><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>A Johnnie Walker billboard advises Beirutis to “keep
walking,” a slogan that took on a more audacious tone after the Israeli
shelling of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
The ad has been circulating on the Internet, giving it a presence beyond the
actual billboards. Leo Burnett, creator of the ad, is closely tailoring its
campaigns to local markets. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><a name=secondParagraph></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>In an allusion to the recent Israeli air strikes,
which destroyed dozens of bridges across <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/lebanon/index.html?inline=nyt-geo"
title="More news and information about Lebanon.">Lebanon</a>, the Johnnie
Walker character, cane in hand, strides away from the gap and across the bridge
on the poster, which urges the Lebanese to “keep walking.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The ad is
notable because multinational companies usually go out of their way to insulate
their marketing from any reference to sensitive international disputes. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
spokeswoman for <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=DEO"
title=Diageo>Diageo</a>, Alicia Tetlow, said the company’s marketing
guidelines prohibited its ads from taking political positions. The campaign in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>, she
said, was intended to “capture a popular mood about moving
forward.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Diageo, the
London-based company whose other brands include Smirnoff, Guinness and Baileys,
sells Johnnie Walker in dozens of markets, including <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>
and <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/israel/index.html?inline=nyt-geo"
title="More news and information about Israel.">Israel</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Farid
Chehab, chief creative officer for Central and Eastern Europe and the <st1:place
w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> at Leo Burnett, the agency that created the
ad, said the campaign was intended to improve morale, not to make a political
statement. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But he
added that the ads represented “a new idiom in terms of how far you can
go.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While
global marketers’ sensitivities have sometimes resulted in bland,
one-size-fits-all campaigns, Diageo has adopted a “global local” advertising
model for brands like Johnnie Walker. That means a single global advertising
theme is applied differently in individual markets, in an effort to keep it
locally relevant.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>With many
marketers struggling to connect with elusive consumers, Mr. Chehab said, brands
cannot ignore “earthquakes” like the recent fighting.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>“Advertising
must be a reflection of what people feel and think at one time,” he said
by telephone from <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Leo
Burnett agencies work on Johnnie Walker in several countries, putting in place
the “keep walking” theme, which was developed several years ago by
another agency, BBH. One of those markets is <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, though a spokeswoman for
Leo Burnett said there were no active campaigns there at the moment.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mr.
Chehab said H&C Leo Burnett, the agency’s <st1:City w:st="on">Beirut</st1:City>
affiliate, developed the campaign in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> shortly after the bombing
began this summer. The ads, including the billboard and a series of print
spots, started appearing in newspapers by the end of July.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>All of
the ads use the “keep walking” slogan and the brand’s
striding figure. One shows him alongside the fuel gauge of a car, which
registers empty, a reference to the blockade of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>, which caused fuel
shortages and long lines at gasoline stations. Another shows a signpost indicating
the directions to destinations like <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cyprus</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>, hinting at
the mass flight from homes around <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> as the Israeli campaign
unfolded. An arrow labeled <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
points straight to the Johnnie Walker character.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The most
striking execution in the campaign is the image of the bridge on the billboard.
Pictures of it have made their way onto Internet blogs, giving the campaign a
viral dimension that extends its audience far beyond those who have seen the
billboard.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Leo
Burnett and Diageo said it was too early to determine whether the campaign had
affected sales of Johnnie Walker. But Mr. Chehab said the attention that the
campaign had generated on the Internet proved its cost-effectiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>After
all, multinational marketers can spend millions on advertising that is often
ignored. Or they can spend very little — Diageo would not say how much
the campaign in Lebanon had cost, but it was probably less than $50,000 —
to far greater effect, if the idea has legs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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