Let’s face it – being female has its challenges!

Indeed it does. Have a look at the preview for this Carefree e-card.

I’m glad I went to send one to a friend, because I’d have forgotten the major life hurdles that women are up against if I hadn’t. Which apparently include:

• men and heartbreak
• ballsports
• bikinis
• lunch time (?)
• unfashionable footwear

Gee whizz. Ladies need to stop complaining about raising three kids, budgeting for the household, making sure their households are healthy, running the kids to school, keeping up with mountains of washing, making sure the kids are picked up from school, doing the grocery shopping, cooking the family dinner, and managing their full-time jobs. There are definitely more pressing worries on their minds (like mall shopping) than issues such as these.

I’m not sure if she has time to fill in the mandatory fields (requesting information on her personal hygiene habits and what have you) before sending such a thoughtful greeting to her email overloaded friend. But she’ll at least find comfort in the fact that it’s not just her who’s having trouble juggling swimwear and playing soccer.

This piece of communication could have been stronger had it focused on what Carefree claims to stand for: Be fresh. Be confident. Be Carefree.

Focusing on those elements could have steered the execution along a more witty, funny path, and at the same time built up more around Carefree as a brand. Instead, I feel like the only objective met here is growing a customer database – if users persist long enough to click send.

It’s interesting to note that the brand is in the business of delivering much stronger work, like the Carefree Up Close & Personal campaign Holler Sydney & OMD Fuse created last year.

• Hayley
• DATE: 23 August, 2010  |  COMMENTS: 2