Don't become the butt of your own joke.

Jamba Juice makes smoothies. They have for years. Unfortunately for them, McDonald's is getting in on the smoothie game. This sucks for Jamba Juice because McD's outnumbers them by about 500 to 1.

I completely agree with the folks at Jamba who figured they ought to get in the ring and remind consumers why they must continue to get their smoothies at Jamba Juice.

I totally take issue with the approach.

This spot throws a cheeseburger in a blender and turns it into a smoothie. As you might expect, it turns brown with gobs of what are presumably condiments swirled on top. People sit there, licking their straws with brown goop dripping off. Then we're send to a website to learn more.

http://

This continues...

For about 20 seconds, the site continues to plug the cheeseburger smoothies. Then it fads to a page that reveals the joke...and the punch line. That punch line has something to do with the fact that they're sticking to what they do best. And others should too. Then it offers a $1 smoothie coupon.

First of all, there's one fundamental rule in food advertising that you just don't break. It has to do with appetite appeal. This violates it big time. I am sick to my stomach again, as I type this, remembering the brown liquid in the cup.

And what about the poor saps that don't make it to the website? Might there even be some loyal Jamba fans who are interested or curious in trying this disgusting mess?

Is there an insight here? Yeah, but it certainly doesn't come from consumers. It's a corporate insight - better described as fear. Fear that big giant McDonald's is going to steal all your customers away with their $2 smoothies because consumers don't know any better what makes a good smoothie from a faux one.

A far better approach would have been for Jamba to focus, as they claim to, on the things it ACTUALLY does well. The fresh fruit, the all-naturalness of it all. Show us the fresh fruit; tell us about what makes your product more natural than McDonald's. Hell, call the competitors bluff for all I care. It's all fair game.

But brown crap in a cup is, well, crap.

OFF STRATEGY by a mile.