Bacardi Mojito Branded Utility Fail
Last week I wrote about my love for the Cheese and Burger Society. This week, I write about my not-love for Bacardi.com.
My brother and I wanted Mojitos (should I be ashamed?). My hermano suggested we go to Bacardi.com, being certain that they would have a good recipe for a Mojito. Three steps later, I decided to never use that web site again.
Step 1: Use the calculator.
I was actually really excited about this. We needed to buy supplies, and this was definitely going to come in handy. First, I told the calculator had 8 people and the party should last 4 hours. I was told I need 2 bottles of BACARDI, 24 limes, 2 cups of sugar, and 11 packs of fresh mint. Seriously?
In an attempt to have the calculator display only one bottle of rum, I incrementally reduced the number of people and the duration of the party until I arrived at 5 guests for 1 hour. Below is what happened:
Really...I don't need any rum? None? It's magical!
Step 2: Print the recipe.
So, I bailed on the calculator, moving on to the recipe section. I found my recipe, clicked the "print" feature, annnnnd....
Step 3: Email the recipe, print it from my email.
Finally, last resort, I chose the "email this to a friend feature." Yup, that broke.
I swear to God, I was not looking for Dragonberry BACARDI.
Step 4: Stop using Bacardi.com.
Branded utilities have so much potential; but if the "utility" part isn't working out, it can actually do more harm for a brand than good. Next time I look for a drink recipe involving rum, I'll be looking somewhere else.
I must say I really like that mojito, which apparently doesn’t require any rum — with the alcohol monopoly and thus scary alcohold prices here in Norway, that IS truly magical!
Wow. One for the books for sure.
I also don’t get the “proof of legal drinking age page” every alcohol themed site makes you go through to enter. I’m sure it’s a legal requirement, I just can’t imagine it’s very effective in turning away underage users & it’s annoying for everyone else.
@brad:I’m guessing it’s a legal issue as well. If you click “exit” it takes you to a non-profit designed to stop underage drinking.
Have you ever seen this Onion article: ‘I Am Under 18’ Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet’ ?
It’s priceless: http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/i_am_under_18_button
@brad: I think that’s stupid too. It would’ve been better if those web sites used a sequence of questions to verify one’s age, as seen in Leisure Suit Larry and probably some other games of the time. This system will let smart underage users in, but lock out all dumb users.
Joke aside; YouTube actually only has that one ‘Verify my age’ button (age being pulled from your account, as that kind of YouTube content requires you to log in), which is a lot less annoying. Then again, they’re censoring and filtering content like China, so there’s not really much use for that button either?
@Josh: I think he’s annoyed by those three select dropdowns, not the concept of having a ‘confirm splash’ before you get to the good stuff.
Sounds like you had a really rough time with the Bacardi site. I can’t believe the email feature was so deceptive and the print function gave you a 404. Doh!
A few buddies and I are working on a possible solution to your Mojito woes, GarnishBar.com
...and we’ll hold out on the age verification as long as our lawyers will let us. :)
Best,
Ben
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