Celebrity encouraging its passengers to "X the Rules"

[eileen & jay]

 

I for one am tired of people that x the rules....

 

 

Ditto!!

[trinabob1950]

I am actually excited about the new campaign; I plan to tell Guest Relations to X my bill at the end of my next cruise. :D

 

 

Absolutely LOVE this one!!!

[Wordzz]

Agree with the vast majority of posts on here. This clearly seems to be an ill-thought out campaign, in which X somehow failed to grasp the way it would be interpreted by a lot of people. The fact that they have had to post an explanation of what they say they meant, says enough.

We are first-timers to Celebrity (first cruise on Eclipse coming up in summer 2011), and switched to X because we are hoping to find a more upscale experience which still retains some of the traditions of cruising.

Whilst accepting the acknowledgement from X that they got this wrong (hence their attempt to explain), when combined with the thread "No formal night on the Eclipse!" it makes me wonder if X hasn't given the game away a bit with this campaign, and really are looking to make changes (or 'downgrade', depending on your point of view).

The confusion does pose a conundrum for us, though. Probably like a lot of people, we book our cruises a long way out, so any changes made after we book could be in place by the time we sail, and if they are changes we don't like - or that would have stopped us booking with X in the first place - then we're stuck with them. Given that uncertainty, we have already started looking at Cunard for 2012, because we don't know where else to go now for the kind of experience we are looking for. Perhaps it will soon no longer exist.:(

[lysolqn]

How many hours until Celebrity will spin 180 like Coke in the 80s and re-introduce their brand as 'Celebrity Classic'?

 

Not soon enough!

[lysolqn]

I don't think they mean for guests to break the rules but to break out of the ordinary day to day life, to relax, enjoy and be pampered, as we are not at home.

 

It's not what the ad campaign means to X that is of concern; it's how it will be interpreted by pax, many of whom already push the envelope without a bona fide endorsement from the cruise line to X the rules and do as they wish.

[gary kelley]

My husband and I only cruise Celebrity because we feel like they cater to people like us who work hard, always follow the rules in our personal lives and enjoy a brief moment in time, once in awhile, to be rewarded with a vacation that lets us feel pampered and soothed. We have to put up with rude, selfish, ignorant people everyday. Inviting them on our vacation would not be an option for us. There are a lot of cruise lines out there so why do people like us always have to give up our space to those who can't conform to our high personal standards? We are very sad about this. If Celebrity becomes like Carnaval, we won't cruise with them. We can't control who we shop with, work with etc, but we can control who we spend our hard-earned vacations with. Pease, Celebrity, listen...there is a reason we feel proud to say we cruise Celebrity. You have a good reputation. Gosh, what is wrong with that?

[Oceangoer2]

My suggestion to the Ad agency, "When you have a focus group to evaluate your campaign plans, NEVER have an open bar."

Just read your response to my note re 'toiletries'. After reading a few notes of yours above, your wife is wrong....you don't NEED encouragement!! LOLOL

[lysolqn]

If there is in fact truth in advertising, perhaps the new ad campaign isn't as bad as we think. In response to a thread regarding X's price protection policy which no longer offers protection following final payment, someone posted this response:

 

"Just tell the TA to "X the rules" and give you the new price. After, it ("X the rules") is Celebrity's new policy!"

 

Hmmm...makes you wonder if X is ready to put its money where its (advertising) mouth is. LOL!

[BroncosFan2010]

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.

 

This post needs a "Like" button!

[hcat]

Wish they'd go back to the Over the Rainbow signature song by Iz--that conjured up some beautiful cruise thoughts & memories!!! I really miss hearing it on TV & on the ship...

 

The trend to tacky has already begun. On our cruise in Sept on Summit they had the loudest party time that I have seen on X at the pool...hosted by the activites staff...we had to leave the pool area for peace & quiet.....

 

they also had some loud bingo calling in the theatre before our show..just to warm up the crowd I guess!!!

 

With such beautiful ships coming on line hope they keep it classy!

[jimandtoni]

[quote name='gary kelley']My husband and I only cruise Celebrity because we feel like they cater to people like us who work hard, always follow the rules in our personal lives and enjoy a brief moment in time, once in awhile, to be rewarded with a vacation that lets us feel pampered and soothed. We have to put up with rude, selfish, ignorant people everyday. Inviting them on our vacation would not be an option for us. There are a lot of cruise lines out there so why do people like us always have to give up our space to those who can't conform to our high personal standards? We are very sad about this. If Celebrity becomes like Carnaval, we won't cruise with them. We can't control who we shop with, work with etc, but we can control who we spend our hard-earned vacations with. Pease, Celebrity, listen...there is a reason we feel proud to say we cruise Celebrity. You have a good reputation. Gosh, what is wrong with that?[/quote]
Very well put. On our first cruise 27 years ago, we were amazed and even emabarrassed and PLEASED by how officious and formal the staff were on the Royal Carribbean Song of Norway. Now, we won't even go on a Royal Caribbean ship..or a NCL or a Carnival...because of lowered standards. I agree,..I have to put up with rude, ignorant, obnoxious people in real life. I prefer NOT to when I am on vacation! We have been on over 70 cruises. I can now clearly forsee a day in the near future when we will no longer go on cruises. And it saddens me.

[TMaine]

I am not sure when they plan to implement this new idea but we cruise at the end of March. If we observe this then, we may decide to X X. It should be interesting. I know a lot of people like us like the way X is or has been as a more traditional cruising experience.

[bhughey]

Not only does the ad campaign send a mixed message (albeit one that is difficult to decipher), it's just DUMB. Who would read that ad and think "I want to sail on Celebrity?"

[Moeve]

Auch not a particularly good Ad campaigne Celebrity!! Just reading the comments here should have sent the Ad dept. into a flat spin this time - I don't think this is really the reaction they wanted.

[Drunken Crab]

I'm sure I'm going to get blasted for this but here it goes..

The "X" in X-the rules isn't cross the rules out and live like marauding pirates aboard Celebrity ships, the X is Celebrity. "Celebrity the rules". In other words sail on Celebrity and literally X out the rules you are forced to comply to at your office, etc that you hate in everyday life and replace them with Celebrity rules of an awesome, well balanced cruise.

Maybe the ad execs read these boards and saw where Celebrity cruisers put on an air of superiority as being refined cruisers. Maybe they thought that they could appeal to more of these passengers with a little more cerebral ad than "fun ship"..

I get it. I think when the full campaign is trotted out, more people will get it. I seriously doubt that anyone in there right mind when seeing the ads will think Celebrity has no rules and it is a free for all cruise line.

[bhughey]

[quote name='Drunken Crab']I'm sure I'm going to get blasted for this but here it goes..

The "X" in X-the rules isn't cross the rules out and live like marauding pirates aboard Celebrity ships, the X is Celebrity. "Celebrity the rules". In other words sail on Celebrity and literally X out the rules you are forced to comply to at your office, etc that you hate in everyday life and replace them with Celebrity rules of an awesome, well balanced cruise.

Maybe the ad execs read these boards and saw where Celebrity cruisers put on an air of superiority as being refined cruisers. Maybe they thought that they could appeal to more of these passengers with a little more cerebral ad than "fun ship"..

I get it. I think when the full campaign is trotted out, more people will get it. I seriously doubt that anyone in there right mind when seeing the ads will think Celebrity has no rules and it is a free for all cruise line.[/QUOTE]

I don't think it's that people don't "get it" - but if it has to be explained, or you have to think TOO hard about it what it means (I had to read through the slides on the facebook page carefully)... it's probably not a very effective ad campaign. Personally, I don't think it does anything to "sell" Celebrity.

[celebritydave]

My wife and I are Elite Celebrity cruisers and we would hate to see anything change with Celebrity standards by encouraging people to break Celebrity rules.

That said, after viewing the slide show several times, that is not the message they are trying to get across. It just appears that they did not present their message very well.

My wife is in Marketing, and she agrees. The first slide should be reformatted to make it clear what they are trying to say.

I am sure there are going to be some future cruisers who are going to take that message the wrong way and break the rules. Those are probably the same people who are already breaking the rules.

I will be watching the board to see what happens on future cruises to see if there are more "rule breakers" than before.

We enjoy the current Celebrity standards including the dress code, which we both believe should be enforced equally across the line. Celebrity has always presented itself as a more formal cruise line and they should maintain that standard. The S class ships are a perfect example of the Celebrity standard.

[Drunken Crab]

[quote name='bhughey']I don't think it's that people don't "get it" .[/quote]

People absolutely don't get it.. This is a 10 page thread of people not getting it! The "X" is Celebrity! I think Celebrity thinks their X is on par with the golden arches or Nike swoosh, but apparently it isn't. The bad part the people that use the X as an replacement for Celebrity, even within this thread, are having problems comprehending the campaign.

Like I said, I think once the ads are rolled out and there's support to "X the Rules", the campaign will be seen in a clearer light. If not, it appears there's a large group of people that won't be cruising on Celebrity or eating at Outback Steakhouse (No Rules, Just Fun)..:D

[C 2 C]

[quote name='Drunken Crab']People absolutely don't get it.. This is a 10 page thread of people not getting it! [/quote]

If you are aiming a campaign at cruisers, no one "gets" X better than the mostly faithful X cruisers on this board... and if you think we "don't get it", just imagine the people who don't know what the X stands for.

X the campaign.

[bhughey]

[quote name='Drunken Crab']People absolutely don't get it.. This is a 10 page thread of people not getting it! The "X" is Celebrity! I think Celebrity thinks their X is on par with the golden arches or Nike swoosh, but apparently it isn't. The bad part the people that use the X as an replacement for Celebrity, even within this thread, are having problems comprehending the campaign.

Like I said, I think once the ads are rolled out and there's support to "X the Rules", the campaign will be seen in a clearer light. If not, it appears there's a large group of people that won't be cruising on Celebrity or eating at Outback Steakhouse (No Rules, Just Fun)..:D[/QUOTE]

It's "No Rules, Just Right" :)

Get it or don't get it... either way, on first impression it's confusing. It's not clever and it does nothing to sell the Celebrity brand.

[cruise47]

[quote name='Host Andy']Hi Darcie !

Very well said. I'm saddened with all of this... as Celebrity used to stand out miles apart from their competition. In recent months, it seems they prefer to march to the same drum beat as everyone else. Where the heck is all the creativity going ??? I hate to say it, but I worry they are losing sight of the beautiful vision of the Celebrity we've loved over the years.

I truly hope Celebrity will take a long pause, and reconsider many of their recent actions.[/quote]

I agree 110 % with both posts. Celebrity needs to take a very long serious look at this new PR idea or they are going to lose a lot of elite cruising members.

[bradpole]

[quote name='Wordzz']Agree with the vast majority of posts on here. This clearly seems to be an ill-thought out campaign, in which X somehow failed to grasp the way it would be interpreted by a lot of people. The fact that they have had to post an explanation of what they say they meant, says enough.
We are first-timers to Celebrity (first cruise on Eclipse coming up in summer 2011), and switched to X because we are hoping to find a more upscale experience which still retains some of the traditions of cruising.
Whilst accepting the acknowledgement from X that they got this wrong (hence their attempt to explain), when combined with the thread "No formal night on the Eclipse!" it makes me wonder if X hasn't given the game away a bit with this campaign, and really are looking to make changes (or 'downgrade', depending on your point of view).
The confusion does pose a conundrum for us, though. Probably like a lot of people, we book our cruises a long way out, so any changes made after we book could be in place by the time we sail, and if they are changes we don't like - or that would have stopped us booking with X in the first place - then we're stuck with them. Given that uncertainty, we have already started looking at Cunard for 2012, because we don't know where else to go now for the kind of experience we are looking for. Perhaps it will soon no longer exist.:([/quote]

Here's something that I just don't understand, why is no formal night "downgrading." If the food and service are still Xtraordinary than why does a tuxedo over a polo shirt make a difference?

[dkjretired]

[quote name='C 2 C']If you are aiming a campaign at cruisers, no one "gets" X better than the mostly faithful X cruisers on this board... and if you think we "don't get it", just imagine the people who don't know what the X stands for.

X the campaign.[/QUOTE]

Exactly, most of us have known for years the actual X reference but this whole thing makes no sense. I wonder if someone at Celebrity is reading these boards. As Andy said earlier, I have never seen a thread in 16 years on this board where everyone is against what they have done...As far as I'm concerned they might have just changed the x for an f as that is the way most will interpret it.

[Mr. Luckytoo]

[quote name='2SeaWithMe']I had to look at it a couple times myself!

Here's the link:

[URL]http://www.facebook.com/celebritycruises?v=app_10467688569[/URL][/quote]

Funny but given that Facebook ad the next Celebrity cruise I take I'm going to go into the MDR in my robe, just like in the photo.

When the Maitre de attempts to stop me I'll just simply reply, "X the rules" - Actually no I won't because that would be plain rude!

The problem here is this - What does "X" stand for?

The MAJORITY of Americans think that "X" stands for to get rid of, cross out, disregard, etc., Heck when I write X on other boards other seasoned cruises sometimes as what I'm referring to.

Some dolt marketing exec had a brilliant idea that X=excitement/exerillation, etc., and 'sold' the X=Class to Celebrity exec...unfortunately it doesn't.

The general public at large doesn't even know that Celebrity eXists, nevertheless what sets =X= apart from RCCL and NCL.

Back to the drawing board on this flop

[C-Dragons]

[quote name='boscobeans']I understand the idea they tried to convey but feel they missed the point and in doing so may have sent out a message that could be misunderstood.

[COLOR=red][B][COLOR=lime][COLOR=black]What does X-ing the rules have to do with[/COLOR] [/COLOR][COLOR=red]building superior ships that constantly rate high in Conde Nast ? [/COLOR][/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=red][B][COLOR=black]What rules are broken or X’d when[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]Celebrity provides quality dining on its ships?[/COLOR][/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=red][B][COLOR=darkorchid][COLOR=red]Providing personalized service with a great guest to crew ratio sets a standard for others to follow[/COLOR] [/COLOR][COLOR=black]and in my opinion breaks no rules.[/COLOR][/B][/COLOR]

All of the above along with Celebrity's claim to offer unexpected experiences is better stated with the old ad phrase “Exceeding all Expectations”.

[B][COLOR=black]Just a poor ad [/COLOR][/B]with a catch phrase that hints of today's in your face double meaning (and possibly rude) bad taste is the norm attitude.
OMO
bosco[/quote]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=darkorchid]They always indicte that their ships consistently rank among the top 10 in customer satisfaction surveys. They would have hit the mark much better by saying: [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]


[FONT=Palatino Linotype][SIZE=5][COLOR=red]"We lead by Xample"[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]