Celebrity encouraging its passengers to "X the Rules"

[happy cruzer]

Why not? X the rules?

 

RCI seems to love making fun of their product - cruising. The Nation of Why N, X the rules. They seem to want people who are special and to encourage them to do just what they want. Of course it is marketing, but that seems to be the target customer. So even if they don't intend at this point to change their product, if they get enough customers that have a why not or s the the rules attitude, then the product will change. Perception becomes reality.

[2SeaWithMe]

Can someone explain to me that tagline re "all the food you can eat, but none that you'd want to"? Sounds as though X's food is terrible. Why would they say that about themselves?

 

I interpreted the line as other cruiselines have bad food, but plenty of it, and that they are saying that's the norm, so they are "x"ing the rules with gourmet cuisine.

[tispwisp]

Put me down as another who hates the "X-ing the Rules" marketing campaign! I don't think it was Celebrity's intent, but I really believe that it brings them down to the other mass market cruise lines level.

 

I like the fact that Celebrity stands apart from the family oriented Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL & Disney lines. They also stand apart (IMHO) from the "older" demographic lines of HAL and Princess. They should have an advertising campaign that caters to their uniqueness. I sincerely hope they are not trying to be like all the other lines. Their uniqueness is why we are planning to book with them exclusively in the future, especially after having such a great experience on the Constellation this past November - our first Celebrity cruise. Looking forward to the 2012-2013 itineraries coming out!!!

[skyblue0604]

Celebrity just posted a a note on their Facebook page about the new ad campaign. Here's the link:

 

http://on.fb.me/hdmdvB

[Conanc]

Celebrity just posted a clarification on Facebook on

The X The Rules Campaign:

 

We'd like to weigh in on the comments about Celebrity’s new campaign. Clearly, some have misunderstood the philosophy behind it, so we appreciate the chance to share some insights.

 

First, we recognize that consumers’ vacation time is precious, and limited. So, how and where they'll spend that precious time is one of the most important decisions they’ll make over the course of the year. That's what drives us to do what we do:

 

• to invest in ships whose interior and exterior design consistently nets top marks from many of the most prestigious travel guides and readers’ surveys (Celebrity just last week swept the Frommer's list of the 20 best ships of 2011, with every Solstice Class ship and every Millennium Class ship included on the elite list; and the brand consistently ranks at the top of annual readers' polls in Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and Celebrated Living, to name a few);
  
• to offer a culinary experience that elevates dining to an art form...which is particularly evident in our new “Qsine” specialty restaurant, one of 10 widely varied, high quality dining options on Celebrity Eclipse alone;
  
• to offer anticipatory, personalized service, with a guest-to-crew ratio of nearly 2:1, and 24/7 butler service in every luxurious suite;
  
• to offer unexpected experiences–such as the Celebrity iLounge complete with iLearn classes; menus, wine lists and even art tours on iPads; destination immersion from speakers from the revered Smithsonian Journeys, and comparative wine tasting courses with the renowned Riedel Crystal.
  

We do all this so our guests can do as much or as little as they want to have a spectacular, unmatchable vacation.

 

'X the rules' is not at all about encouraging consumers to break rules. Quite the contrary; it is designed to showcase how setting new standards and deviating from what’s expected can yield something different, better and truly special. It’s designed to allow us showcase how Celebrity is different than any other land or sea vacation option through our commitment to setting new standards, and to breaking away from the ordinary and what’s expected to ultimately deliver the best premium vacation experience.

[tispwisp]

A bad ad campaign is when you actually have to clarify it!:rolleyes:

[Nonna and Papa]

A very corporate clarification.:)

 

Mary

[ABoatNerd]

New Celebrity ad campaign - how much did they pay for this loser expertise?

 

I make purchase decisions based on the product offering of a supplier ie their brochures, research, reviews

 

Celebrity has been rewarded with my business being 2 - 14 day cruises in a year

 

Celebrity's reduction in food quality in the MDR now combined with this campaign does not instill in me confidence to purchase another cruise from Celebrity

 

If everyone is "customising" their cruise by doing their own thing - what do they portray in their brochures.?

 

When I purchase I want to know fairly precisely the end product - not a wimpy company that let's the lowest denominator rule the ship

 

Not good omen for this once proud company

[BroncosFan2010]

This is a terrible ad campaign idea. Seriously should consider the repercussions of their ads and the message it sends to the customers!

[tispwisp]

I'm on FB and saw the new ad campaign when it came online... I really don't understand why people are upset by it. "X the Rules", if you watch the whole ad, is clearly a call to break your OWN rules, not Celebrity's! As in... "I only cruise once a year....", so X the rule and cruise twice in 2011. Or, "We only do 7 day cruises to Mexico...", so X the rule and go on a 12 night Baltic cruise this year.

 

It's not really surprising, though... considering the number of people who never read the fine print on X's rules. For example... 2 bottles of wine per cabin upon embarkation somehow gets turned into it's okay for everyone to bring two bottles of wine onboard at every port. LOL

 

True - but all most people remember is the tag line. And I don't think Celebrity would like customers to only remember: "X-ing the Rules"! I realize that it goes deeper, like you mentioned above, and I understand what they're trying to convey; but, geesh that's an awful tag line!!!

[ramman]

I'm on FB and saw the new ad campaign when it came online... I really don't understand why people are upset by it. "X the Rules", if you watch the whole ad, is clearly a call to break your OWN rules, not Celebrity's! As in... "I only cruise once a year....", so X the rule and cruise twice in 2011. Or, "We only do 7 day cruises to Mexico...", so X the rule and go on a 12 night Baltic cruise this year.

 

It's not really surprising, though... considering the number of people who never read the fine print on X's rules. For example... 2 bottles of wine per cabin upon embarkation somehow gets turned into it's okay for everyone to bring two bottles of wine onboard at every port. LOL

 

 

Well said, thank you. I also had no perception that Celebrity was going to allow cruisers to break their rules, but read it as an invitation to break your personal "rules" on vacations. To be adventurous, do something that you might normally not do.

[texkan]

IMO someone made a poor ad. I find it confusing. Why do rules need to be changed or relaxed?

[dwjoe]

Celebrity just posted a clarification on Facebook on

 

The X The Rules Campaign:

 

 

We'd like to weigh in on the comments about Celebrity’s new campaign. Clearly, some have misunderstood the philosophy behind it, so we appreciate the chance to share some insights.

 

First, we recognize that consumers’ vacation time is precious, and limited. So, how and where they'll spend that precious time is one of the most important decisions they’ll make over the course of the year. That's what drives us to do what we do:

 

• to invest in ships whose interior and exterior design consistently nets top marks from many of the most prestigious travel guides and readers’ surveys (Celebrity just last week swept the Frommer's list of the 20 best ships of 2011, with every Solstice Class ship and every Millennium Class ship included on the elite list; and the brand consistently ranks at the top of annual readers' polls in Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and Celebrated Living, to name a few);
  
• to offer a culinary experience that elevates dining to an art form...which is particularly evident in our new “Qsine” specialty restaurant, one of 10 widely varied, high quality dining options on Celebrity Eclipse alone;
  
• to offer anticipatory, personalized service, with a guest-to-crew ratio of nearly 2:1, and 24/7 butler service in every luxurious suite;
  
• to offer unexpected experiences–such as the Celebrity iLounge complete with iLearn classes; menus, wine lists and even art tours on iPads; destination immersion from speakers from the revered Smithsonian Journeys, and comparative wine tasting courses with the renowned Riedel Crystal.
  

We do all this so our guests can do as much or as little as they want to have a spectacular, unmatchable vacation.

 

'X the rules' is not at all about encouraging consumers to break rules. Quite the contrary; it is designed to showcase how setting new standards and deviating from what’s expected can yield something different, better and truly special. It’s designed to allow us showcase how Celebrity is different than any other land or sea vacation option through our commitment to setting new standards, and to breaking away from the ordinary and what’s expected to ultimately deliver the best premium vacation experience.

 

Thanks for posting this.

 

I like all of the bullet points; they speak to what makes Celebrity special to me. I just don't think the slogan "X the rules" captures it. :(

[rotaryscotty]

It's obvious that Celebrity was offering a "MARKETING STRATEGY", not a policy change.

 

This is really simple, "They want to take business away from the extremely successful marketing of the "funships".

 

From the responses on this thread, and the fact that they need to explain themselves, tell us that "THEY SCREWED UP".

 

What is surprising is the overreaction on this thread...not at all the response of happy cruisers. There was not a single policy change, yet the mob stormed the castle.

 

Companies make mistakes, people make mistakes, our government makes mistakes.

I'm reminded of the words of Ben Franklin:

"Government will always get it right....after all other alternatives have been tried".

 

Happy cruising....Scotty

[C 2 C]

'X the rules' is not at all about encouraging consumers to break rules. Quite the contrary; it is designed to showcase how setting new standards and deviating from what’s expected can yield something different, better and truly special.

Change your life, start afresh and break the rules, no wait, not our rules, you know the ones...

Sloth (Limitless relaxation.), Gluttony, Greed, Envy, etc... ;)

[AlexandNessa]

Sounds like Celebrity needs to "X" this campaign. Or at least the campaign slogan.

 

Perhaps something like "X the Status Quo" or "Xpect the UnXpected" would have better summarized their intended campaign. But "X the Rules" is too ambiguous.

[eileen & jay]

IMHO, if Celebrity needs to make a formal clarification statement regarding their new ad campaign "X the RULES," the campaign is already a failure. Celebrity needs to X its PR/ad agency ASAP.:eek:

[bob278]

Very few of the people who have posted here believed that Celebrity was about to overhaul all of their "rules" on board. Most felt as I did that the few who already were inclined to their own selfish aims would take this obscure and poorly worded slogan and make it their mantra - "x-cusing" their behavior.

 

I am not a marketeer but I could get the same thought across in two different ways, one not very grammatical, but keeping to the "X" theme and the other very plain English that describes what I think Celebrity delivers.

 

"X-cape the ordinary" and I hope the other is obvious to all.

 

And let's face it, as others have said, if you have to "x-plain" it, it was a bad idea.

[2SeaWithMe]

My objection had nothing to do with rules whatsoever. It had to do with Celebrity jumping on the current popular bandwagon to try to situate a curse-word into ad/tv without saying one.

[Karynanne]

In the past, Celebrity has had a variety of ad campaigns. Some worked well, and others not so well. But THIS ONE truly invokes a negative intent.

 

My comment to Celebrity...be careful what you wish for. You might just get it...and it won't be pretty whatsoever.

[luvtravel88]

"The waiter told us that if attempts are made to enforce the appropriate dress code, some folks cause quite a public scene until they are admitted. And of course Celebrity doesn't want public demonstrations of poor or impolite behavior."I

 

It seems to me that this is the problem. IMHO Celebrity needs to grow a backbone and kindly but insistently and consistently follow their own rules.

[hcat]

"As a shareholder in RCL and a past Eclipse cruiser who fell in love with Celebrity, I am confused about the intent of your new ad campaign "X the Rules" which reminds me of an inappropriate similar saying- "F the rules". Love your non-smoking policy but will new cruisers decide to X that rule? What about dining shirtless- will that be X'd too? You get my drift,,,Why not drop the 'the' for this-"X RULES"? Think, people!"

 

Gee-- you gave them a million dollar slogan for free!!!!! How sad...for X ...

[greeneg]

One has to wonder if the ad campaign is just another one of those slips that many long time cruisers have mentioned lately, service lapses, spotty food quality, etc. Celebrity used to be known for and used to advertise its "attention to detail". Perhaps this is another example where some of the details were missed by someone.

 

Clearly an ad campaign that has to be clarified is poorly done.

[bighairtexan]

The ad campaign can obviously be interpreted several ways. X out the rules, Xpletive the rules. XCelebritize the rules. And some people will use the ambiguity to their advantage. But it's kind of like telling a joke and then having to explain it. If that's necessary, there's a good chance the joke wasn't so funny. If you have to explain an ad campaign (how embarrassing) then it's probably not such an effective advertising slogan.

[Karynanne]

The ad campaign can obviously be interpreted several ways. X out the rules, Xpletive the rules. XCelebritize the rules. And some people will use the ambiguity to their advantage. But it's kind of like telling a joke and then having to explain it. If that's necessary, there's a good chance the joke wasn't so funny. If you have to explain an ad campaign (how embarrassing) then it's probably not such an effective advertising slogan.

 

Bingo!