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Vermont Teddy Bear Company Catches Flack on Twitter
In this week's Seven Days, I interviewed Pam Fay, a "bear assembler" at Vermont Teddy Bear Company headquarters in Shelburne. Fay was working hard, seeing as Valentine's Day is Vermont Teddy's biggest holiday.
Returning to the Seven Days office after my interview, I discovered that several users of Twitter, a popular online messaging service, were complaining about the content and tone of Vermont Teddy Bear's new Valentine's Day commercials.
"Are Vermont Teddy Bear TV ads as offensive to everyone else as they are to me?" asked Adam Mordecai, a Twitterite from Boulder, Colorado. "Besides the sexism, the pathetic acting makes me stroke out."
"Vermont bear company: your commercials are frightening. do grown women really squeal with glee over teddy bears?" added Jinni Prokopy of Chicago. "What am i missing?"
About 12 hours ago, Vermont tweeter Morgan Brown summed up a week's worth of mostly negative comments: "Moral of story: what's good for Vermont Teddy Bear, may not be so good for Vermont, particularly the brand."
Wendy Duval, PR & Communications Manager for Vermont Teddy, declined to comment for this blog post.
Another Twitter:
Levott: DIE VERMONT TEDDY BEAR, DIE!!! It just feels dirty listening to the damn commercial. $$
Ouch.
Posted by: Cathy Resmer | February 13, 2009 at 03:52 PM
ohmygod I just watched that. It reminds me of the fake commercials on SNL. But... real.
Posted by: bridgetb | February 13, 2009 at 04:07 PM
They are horrible commercials...way over acted...guys are horny, girls are slutty. As if you're gonna get laid after buying the overpriced crap. The company's pajamagram ads are just as creepy too, especially the guys, wink wink smile I bought this now I'm getting laid. y'all need a new ad agency with better writing and real actors, not local "models".
Posted by: nofan | February 14, 2009 at 11:07 AM
The AV Club contributes to the Teddy Bear Smackdown:
Vermont Teddy Bears: The Creative Alternative To Being A Human Being. They should have just said, "Guys: how much do you hate yourself? How much do you hate your stupid girlfriend? Get her a stupid bear. Done."
Ouch.
Posted by: Eva Sollberger | February 16, 2009 at 07:46 PM
Just read that Hater rant on the AV Club. It touched off a flurry of anti-VT jokes in the comments, as well as some speculation about how many women actually respond this way to teddy bears and whether it is "hardwired" for women to compete to see who can collect the most loot on V-day. Pretty amusing.
I do wish the writer had mentioned the $99.95 "Recession Bear."
Posted by: Margot Harrison | February 17, 2009 at 11:35 AM
That might be the worst commercial I have ever seen. What nobody has mentioned yet is how heterosexist it is. Suddenly Valentine's Day is only for men giving women presents? What about men celebrating Valentine's Day with men, women with women, women giving to men? But no, of course this commercial has to reinforce the idea that women can be "bought" by a man, and somehow that is the only thing that can ever make her feel "happy" and "complete."
Ultimately, this just means less business for Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Well, that's their bad business decision! Let the marketplace work under that wonderful invisible hand.
Posted by: anon | February 18, 2009 at 11:48 PM
Ok, the commercial is pretty bad but I sort of got the idea it was intended to be that way. And as sexist as people may think it is, most chicks I work with would respond that same way. Not that it makes it right but it is just a commercial. Tearing down the gender walls is a tough job. It would be cool to see them make a commercial that included ALL love couples. Relax and enjoy the entertainment, it's only for a month or so a year, right?
Posted by: Rhonda | February 19, 2009 at 03:32 PM
Wow. I would've thought that after the infamous "Crazy for You Bear" scandal of 2005, VT Teddy Bear would be trying harder not to offend potential customers. Wow.
Posted by: Mariah Pittman | February 19, 2009 at 03:49 PM
Well, I do say that the commercials are poorly written. However, I give VT Teddy Bear a lot of credit for creating such a buzz around their commercials. If they weren't so bad, then there wouldn't have been such a stir on twitter. It is great publicity.
Posted by: Mark | February 19, 2009 at 03:55 PM
There are way bigger problems in this world right now then debating about the content of a Vermont TeddyBear commercial... Why does this community feel the need to rip into our best companies? First we go after Burton, then TeddyBear. What's next? SeventhGen? They must be doing something wrong too. Please research and don't stop until you find something to protest.
Remember the cause-heads from the movie PCU? They've all relocated to this blog.
Droz: These, Tom, are your cause-heads. They find a world-threatening issue and stick with it... for about a week.
Moonbeam: What don't we eat?
Crowd: Red meat!
Moonbeam: Why don't we eat it?
Crowd: It's murder!
Cow: Don't eat me!
Moonbeam: If every student on this campus were to starve, it would be worth the life of a calf.
[After being dowsed with paint]
Dave and Dave: Harsh butt!
http://www.mutantreviewers.com/pquotes.html
Posted by: RuKidding? | February 19, 2009 at 06:00 PM
@RUKIDDING: Actually, the Twitter conversation that we're talking about is not local. The (numerous) complaints on Twitter are from people scattered all over the country. When we pointed it out, local people started chiming in. It's very different from what happened with the Burton boards. That controversy was very localized, then spread. Whereas this conversation was national, and was later localized.
Posted by: Cathy Resmer | February 20, 2009 at 07:13 AM
Wow-- this commercial is pretty awful. But it looks a lot like the recent Burger King commercial where the girls go crazy over a tiny burger slider-- which I actually thought was really funny... and so did my husband. I think VTB could have made this just a little more over the top and gotten away with it-- as it stands, it seems like they meant this sincerely, and it flops.
Posted by: Reader in Middlebury | February 20, 2009 at 01:19 PM
I used to work for VTB until last year. We all knew this commercial was too corny and out-dated. The previous year vday there was nicer commercials (search for show her you know hear on youtube done by Fuse) but were rather boring. With all the lay offs, not like they're going to invest in new commercials or a new brand idea.
I always wished they had gone the GEICO route with real humor instead of those dumb classless commericals.
This twiter thing looks terrible. At least the new website is looking better.
Posted by: BlueBear | February 26, 2009 at 07:11 PM
Here are my suggestions for a new bear in light of the marketing direction at Vermont Teddy Bear. Perhaps this can be part of a campaign of bear and commercial centered around how silly Valentines Day really is in practice.
So here's my new suggestion for some bears I sent to their bear submission form.
Make a woman office bear with really big breasts who is is frustrated with her portrayal as a easily duped materialistic spouse. Overload her with chocolates and mini-vermont teddy bear male bears which shes received from office stalkers who are too shy to be men and ask her out. Try to portray her disgust at the gifts shes receiving by making an unhappy face on the bear as she contemplates the nice $100 japanese steak house dinner she otherwise could have had before being expected to "put out" for valentines day night.
This would be an ideal gift to market to women prior to valentines day to remind their men not to buy them a Vermont Teddy Bear, or to buy for herself and display at the office to ward off would-be Valentine's day teddy bear stalkers. Or, this bear could be marketed to marketing professionals as a reminder when they decide to recycle old commercials which are too long in length and replayed over and over in a short period of time due to budget issues whilst also single-handedly coupling racial tones through the use of lackluster hispanic themed bears targeted for a latin market.
Or you could market this bear to the nationwide twitter/blogger non-fans of the commercial as a limited edition bears in the news bear. She could be called the "Socially Transmitted Disease Viral Marketing Bear"
I would also couple this bear with a "New Boyfriend" or "Divorcee Bear" for the women that specifically seem to want to not give their significant other sex should she receive a Vermont Teddy Bear for Valentines day based out-dated and tasteless commercials.
Yet another idea is a potentially jobless dumped male office stalker bear who has lost his girlfriend and is reading the web seeing how people are making fun of anyone that actually did buy a Vermont Teddy Bear foolishly expecting sex. This could be marketed after Valentines day for women who received the corny "I'm an officer stalker and I have a tattoo that says Mom and I send teddy bears for sex, have sex with me" gift. Women will want to send them back to the stalker guy at the office as a reminder while their gift is appreciated, they're not getting laid and oh btw...7 at least your bear had an airhole and the cut little mini version of you did survived long enough to see my office trash can. You could couple this loser male bear with a blowup bear doll accessory.
Posted by: Cupid | February 26, 2009 at 11:20 PM
Anyone else think that lady is trying to keep from taking a poop?or she just smelled it when someone did?that's what it reminded me of. Ty,VT for ruining Valentines Day!
Posted by: Kelley | February 12, 2010 at 03:18 AM
As a large, hairy, and bearded gay man (a/k/a/BEAR) I object to my objectification for commercial purposes!
Posted by: Sir Winston Thriller | February 12, 2010 at 09:51 AM