This weekend I clicked on Royal Caribbean’s website to read the cruise line president’s "Why Not?" blog which is on the cruise line website called the "Nation of Why Not." 

Believe it or not, I like reading what cruise line CEO’s write about.   It’s interesting to me to see the disconnect between the usually mundane things the cruise executives promote compared to missing passengers, shipboard crimes and norovirus outbreaks which the executives don’t want you to know about.

You may recall that back in 2008 Royal Caribbean abandoned its high energy and highly successful Get Out There! marketing campaign, which featured videos of passengers hiking on a glacier, dog sledding and kayaking, while a upbeat tune with a heavy base blared out the refrain of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life!  Quite frankly, I would sometimes find myself humming that damn song after a Royal Caribbean ad would come on the TV.

For reasons not clear to me, Royal Caribbean discarded the brilliant Get Out There! theme.  Instead of the dynamic images of active cruise vacationers, Royal Caribbean introduced a new marketing campaign called the "Nation of Why Not."

I thought that the cruise line had lost its mind.  It replaced the high octane energy of its Get Out There! campaign with odd images of the whimsical and lackadaisical Nation of Why Not.   Was the cruise line trying to compete with Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman’s What Me Worry motto?  Why walk away from the positive energy of Get Out There! and replace it with the ambivalent if not negative karma of a marketing slogan with the word NOT in it?

I clicked on the Nation of Why Not link on the bottom right corner of the Royal Caribbean home page to read the president’s Why Not? blog.  But instead of entering the Why Not nation, I was directed instead to a page named "Answer It Royally."

Where did the Nation of Why Not go?  The cruise president’s Why Not? blog also disappeared, replaced with a blog called Sea Views.

What’s going on?  Did the cruise line abandon its marketing concept?  Did Royal Caribbean tell the citizens of Why Not that their nation no longer existed?

So I looked around on the internet.  But I couldn’t find anything.  The cruise president’s last article on the new Sea Views blog was about how important it is to blog as a CEO and, ironically enough, the need to maintain brand loyalty.  It was strange to read someone talking about the concept of brand loyalty instead of actually practicing it. 

How about an explanation regarding whether the Why Not? mantra is being replaced with "Answer it Royally?"  And what does "Answer it Royally" mean anyway? 

The only information I could find about what appears to be a new marketing theme is that Royal Caribbean trademarked the phrase "The Sea is Calling.  Answer it Royally."  OK, now I get it.  Cute, I suppose.  

Royal Caribbean just filed its application for the new service mark on September 13th.  Perhaps there will be some type of announcement from the marketing and web agency people in the future about all of this?

Loyal-to-Royal cruise fans, did I miss something in the last couple of months?  Do you know what happened to the Nation of Why Not?  What do you think about the Answer it Royally theme?

I say bring back the Get Out There! videos and turn Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life on full blast.

 

December 12, 2011 Update:  A reader brought to my attention that Royal Caribbean’s new ad  debuted in October in Spanish ("El Mar Te Llama").  You can watch it here.  

Another reader pointed out that if you type in "the sea is calling" dot com, you go to a Royal Caribbean’s facebook page which has the new video.

Cruisemates published an article today discussing the cruise line’s new national ad campaign which you can read here.   Royal Caribbean invited some members of the media to a conference call this morning and introduced the new ad.