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It was a case of advertising working too well.
That's why Priceline.com decided to knock off its spokesman of 14 years, William Shatner. In the latest spot from Butler Shine Stern & Partners, San Francisco, a bus teeters on a bridge. Mr. Shatner helps shepherd riders out of the back to safety but is unable to exit in time as the vehicle makes a fiery and spectacular crash into a ravine.
Priceline.com Chief Marketing Officer Brett Keller said that only Michael Jordan for Nike and Bill Cosby with Jell-O were in Mr. Shatner's league as iconic endorsers. Which is precisely why he had to be killed off.
"One of the challenges we face is that Bill is so awesome and so closely associated with Priceline that we needed to grab back consumers' attention," Mr. Keller said.
The problem was that Mr. Shatner is so closely identified with his character, The Negotiator, and Priceline is moving to focus on its fixed-price discount (at 200,000 hotels in 140 countries) instead of the name-your-own-price business Mr. Shatner made famous.
"Bill is the face of name-your-own-price, and we felt we had to really get the message out about this," said Mr. Keller. "The published-price segment is the fastest-growing one for us."
But try...