Marketers' Behavior Says Recession

Any doubt that this country is in a recession can be laid to rest by looking at the ads coming out of Madison Avenue. Smaller, lower-cost sandwiches, cheaper Starbucks coffee, automotive ads featuring cost savings are just a few of the signs.

Here are some other campaigns suggesting that advertisers already believe the wolf is at the door:

¶A campaign for Sammies, a new sandwich line at Quiznos, stresses the low price ($2 each) as much as the low calorie count (200 to 300 each).

¶“Uncertain times call for a very certain rate,” assert advertisements for North Fork Bank, part of Capital One, offering a seven-month certificate of deposit at 4.25 percent.

¶TheLadders.com, a jobs Web site, sent e-mail messages last Monday bearing this subject line: “Recession is coming, get your job insurance now!”

¶Nissan is pitching the fuel economy of its 2008 Altima sedan, rather than style or performance, with commercials devoted to its ability to go more than 600 miles between fill-ups.

¶Ads from a new campaign for Club Med family resorts carry banner headlines declaring that “Kids stay free.”

¶Starbucks is testing in Seattle-area stores “short,” or small, coffees priced at $1 a cup — and free refills.

¶Sovereign Bank is wooing consumers to open checking accounts with up to $100 in “gas reward cards.”

Those with long memories may recall other times in the last two decades that ads were devoted to encouraging consumer frugality rather than celebrating unchecked spending. For example, there were price-conscious campaigns after the 1987 stock market crash, during the 1990-1 recession and after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000-1.

This time, however, it seems the shift in tone is taking place earlier in the economic cycle. After all, a recession is defined traditionally as two straight quarters of contraction — and officially, there has not even been one.

“California is in a tough economy right now,” said Michael Branigan, vice president for marketing at Sizzler USA Restaurants in Culver City, Calif., which has restaurants in that state and 15 others as well as Puerto Rico.

“It’s not that our consumer doesn’t like us,” he added. “It’s just that they don’t have the money to eat out.”