I braved the journey to Blossom Music Center this summer to accompany my daughter and a few thousand of her closest friends to see the group I refer to as the “Pre-fab Four”-the Spice Girls.
I planned for a long, hot evening filled with the screams of prepubescent girls dressed in a variety of precocious ensembles, too much makeup and wobbling around on the same 6-inch platforms my own mother clamored about some years ago.
As expected, “Scary,” “Baby,” “Sporty,” and “Posh” delivered a prepackaged musical performance, maneuvered a few poorly choreographed dance moves and changed costumes more often than Barbie herself.
But I was impressed by the performance … honestly!
Going in, I expected the worst but left with something never anticipated. The Spice Girls are stellar performers in the marketing and sales arena. Who knew?
As superficial as they may seem, the four 20-something Brits have cleverly concealed their true talent with the language of pop culture.
What they really mean by “Girl Power” is the “buying power of girls ages 12 to 24.”
The first hint of genius came at 7:30 p.m., when the concert was scheduled to begin. Rather than the traditional warm-up band, concert-goers were greeted with a few popular music videos on three immense screens. After the first few music videos, the audience had been captivated and eagerly awaited another on-screen musical performance. As the fourth video began, its format was so similar to the music videos that proceeded it, no one seemed to notice it was a commercial for an acne treatment. More musical ads followed for everything from nail polish to motorcycles.
An hour into the concert, when the singers took a break, 30 minutes of non-stop commercials followed. It appeared to be a Spice Girls music video repeated several times, but after a few minutes, but I realized it was actually a commercial for the many “Spice” products available in booths at the concert.
When the girls returned to the stage after the break, clad in red, white and blue-they were singing a song I knew I’d heard before but couldn’t quite remember where. Was it a tribute to their own Union Jack or to Old Glory? When the red and blue logo of Pepsi- Cola appeared on the big screens, however, I quickly remembered. The Spice Girls gave Pepsi a new variety of commercial by singing and dancing it live as part of their performance.
With sponsors like Pepsi, Revlon and Gillette, it probably doesn’t matter if the Girl Power phenomenon doesn’t last for more than a few years. If the four invest well, they will probably never have to work again.
But if they do, I’d want them on my marketing team.
