Hart Tools, exclusively available at Walmart, recently posted about competing tool brands on social media.
The Hart Tools social media team started off by posted an image of a candy wonderland, with the caption “Craftsman’s Ads.”
In the next slide, Hart shows an image of a sad-looking Willie Wonka-inspired Oompa Loompa with the caption “Craftsman’s Tools.”
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I’ve seen – and reported on – tool brands’ competitive marketing over the years, but this one is very different and quite frankly shocking.
Light-hearted cross-brand banter can be funny. This just seems sad and embarrassing.
They gave Ego the same treatment.
Hart has a Tiktok about Craftsman too, with the caption “did we just expose their factory?”
Real classy, Hart.
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Michael F
I’m going to be completely honest here: one of the reason I’ve sold almost every Milwaukee tool I own is that I’ve seen the inner-workings of TTI’s marketing and product departments and I can’t speak enough to how their culture does not align with mine. I’ve mentioned this in other posts as well. As far as I’m concerned, this is not surprising whatsoever coming from a TTI brand. If they could get away with worse they’d do it.
Stuart
This is not Milwaukee culture. TTI is compartmentalized.
This could possibly reflect on the Ryobi management team, but absolutely not Milwaukee’s.
Dave
Milwaukee’s sleezy deceptive marketing only began a few years after TTI took over. I’m talking about things like the infamous screwdriver indecent, the “competitors” leaf blower that had impeller blades removed, the saw demo where they altered the pitch of the “identical” blade on the competitors saw, and God knows how many were never caught. The thing is their tools are great by themselves and don’t need all the BS marketing, but someone in their marketing department seems to think otherwise. Were are talking about Ryobi/Hart here, but Milwaukee is probably TTI’s single biggest offender.
Stuart
“infamous screwdriver incident”??
I’ve never seen altered comparative testing, but I generally dismiss comparative testing unless I’m picking the candidates myself.
Lance
Stuart, the public are not as informed as people who follow tools and will be swayed by these things. It’s sad.
ITCD
Interesting. Now I did know about the obvious, all the super hyperbolic statements on the packages. Most A. Fastest B. Best C. Quickest D. Funny enough every single boast like that also has a little tm next to it.
MikeIT
Ah yes, the infamous screwdriver incident. I thought we all agreed not to talk about it ever again?
BigTimeTommy
Well on the bright side, if your values aligned with a huge corporation’s you’d probably be a sociopath.
Steve
It’s funny considering they are basically Walmart’s Ryobi, not really a step up.
Blocky
It’s also funny because at least they are consistent?
IronWood
Not much of a marketing budget I guess. Five minutes of AI image generation, and they couldn’t even make new images for the next brand? And how is Hart a brand that’s in a position to trash talk anyone?! You nailed it, Stuart, sad and embarrassing.
TomD
It’s a reference to some British shenanigans that was all over social media this week: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/willy-wonka-immersive-experience-glasgow-illuminati-house-box-hub-angry-parents-called-police/
So they just used the actual images.
As a side note, anyone using AI images immediately feels incredibly cheap now.
TJ
Those ads are playing of the disaster the “Willy Wonka Experience” turned into over in Europe. It’s all over the news.
Someone promised an immersive experience like Meow Wolf but failed to deliver offering an empty warehouse with lousy posters and bad foam cutouts in place of the Lollypop Forest with jellybean Water falls promoted in there AI generated ads. Children cried, police were called. Images promised vs experience delivered was beyond laughable becoming the top ranking overhyped event in history.
Peter
👍🏽
blocky
Fyre fest tho
kent
Yeah, without the context of that it looks like very dumb marketing but if you know the story and have been following the memes than it is actually quite funny.
TomD
The problem is it’s in-joke on in-joke.
If Stuart didn’t catch it, there’s really no hope of the intended audience catching it.
(The “cool kids” aren’t going to buy power tools at all, let alone Walmart ones lol)
Stuart
I understand the meme, and found it to be in bad taste either way.
They’re basically saying that Craftsman and Ego are making bold promises and delivering garbage tools.
They could have simply said “the other brand.” Instead they decided to be as cringey as possible.
The companies they named aren’t even competitors; I consider Hart to be a lower tier brand compared to Craftsman and Ego.
Mark
Very cringey. It just feels like kids who have never used tools much are in control of these social media profiles these days. People who spend a lot of time online really overestimate how important stuff that happens on there is to the rest of people. A kids event halfway around the world was very disappointing, and its worth creating advertising content spun off of it to insult your competitors? It’s just something that seems weird and cringey unless you are consuming memes daily as an activity.
Acting like an idiot online for engagement slowly seems to be something companies’ marketing departments think is a good idea.
Jared
Thanks for the context. At least that makes “sense” of these ads.
Still seems like a dumb idea to me. Even if I now understand the “joke”, it just doesn’t apply to Craftsman or Ego. If they had some giant product failure, it could be timely commentary – but they’re both good cordless tool brands.
This just looks like hurling insults without a reason, by a brand that isn’t in a position to look down on either of those competitors.
MM
That’s my take on it. I get the reference they’re making, but there’s just no underlying logic behind it. There might have been if Craftsman or Ego recently botched some high-profile launch but that isn’t the case at all. It seems like they’re trying to insult the competition by implying they make disappointing tools, but that doesn’t really fly since Ego’s OPE is well regarded, and it’s not like Hart gets much respect from tradesmen, mechanics, etc. It has a pot-calling-the-kettle-black feel to me.
S
Thanks for that part of the context.
Now about the ‘#refund’ part, what is that about?
At 37, I must be getting too for this, because I really don’t even see the ego/craftsman connection…
MM
I’m not even sure what these ads are trying to say. They come across like some juvenile schoolyard insult.
Adam
The Ego side by side is easier to understand their intention. The Ego ads are all colorful and pretty, but then you get the actual tool and nothing like what was advertised.
They are also assuming you follow Willy Wonka news from around the world.
Wayne R.
Everything about Walmart is unpleasant at best.
Jason
It’s an interesting departure to the brands “voice”.
Certain brands such as Dude Wipes, Wendy’s, etc. are known for being light hearted on social media.
Most tools brands keep it very professional especially TTi brands. Occasionally you’ll see SBD brands celebrate certain cultural holidays, diversity achievements, etc.
From what I have seen TTi brands have remained very neutral and about business.
The post doesn’t bother me at all, a little hilarious considering it’s coming from a Walmart brand. That being said I have some Hart attachments because they’re so inexpensive compared to the identical Ryobi expandit, but no ones considering Hart>Ego
Corey R
If these brands all had media teams that were constantly having a back and forth, I think this would have come across much better. I have much more tolerance for media teams that have built a rivalry online where they both know they’re competing with a friendly competitor. Not every brand needs to think they’re the perfect solution; and not every other manufacturer needs to be vilified. It’s just easier to push an us-vs-them mentality.
Michael
Ego is pretty leading in the lawn equipment so whatever. I’m actually looking at Craftsman tools a lot more now for my less used tools. Example… powered caulk gun. I don’t want to spend $200 for the dewalt 20v or $150 for the m12. I have both worlds… I actually have a few 12v dewalts still hanging on too.
I did end up with a 20v Craftsman Lawn mower though… so $60 for the caulk gun I can tolerate to make my life simpler. Dewalt is canabilizaing their own sales for me at least.
Robert
The most frustrating thing about the perverse world of marketing is that the consumer is involuntarily taxed to support the ads, without representation. The manufacturers pass on the cost of advertising in the price of the products, so I am taxed. Ads almost never give me useful info, and I really don’t want to pay more for a car because dumb-dung next store needs to be convince by TV to buy a particular brand/model of car. Yes, you can mitigate it a bit by buying generic store brands. But even many of those sellers advertise, and most big ticket purchases are branded and heavily advertised.
NoDak Farming
You make a good point that I hadn’t given much thought to before. But now I am thinking of it, and I’m wondering why some companies aren’t doing it more. Advertising, that is. For a few different reasons I’ve chosen to buy into MetaboHPT’s line of tools ever since they were Hitachi. So I’ll use them as an example. I am actively shopping for cordless impact wrenches and accidentally discovered that MetaboHPT just released a brand new compact impact wrench bundled with two slim line 4Ah batteries. On Amazon only! And Hikoki’s version is apparently Amazon only too. They have also released Gen. 2 versions of their 36 volt, multi-volt, batteries, amongst a new vacuum and some other things. And I’m only finding this stuff, because I’m actively sleuthing around on Amazon.
I’m on the internet enough to know that it’s been decided that Milwaukee and Dewalt are the absolute best cordless tool ecosystems that can be bought into. But I like my MetaboHPT stuff and want to continue to buy more of their tools. It just kind of rubs me the wrong way that I have to become my own personal research assistant, to track down their products to different corners of the internet. Kudos to Walmart for triggering the internet to be thinking of their tool line. I’d be more than pleased if MetaboHPT would use some ridiculous advertising to make people notice their tools more often too!
John804
The woman in that picture was completely screwed over by the promotor of that event. I think she’s more of a victim of his scam than all the families that attended. Her story is in the Daily Mail (I know, it’s garbage, but it’s the paper she told her story). This is a picture of her having a terrible experience, having been lied to about the event, not getting paid, but still doing her best to still give some entertainment to the kids attending the event.
This ad campaign is in really poor taste. Hart tools should be apologizing to her.
Mark
Social media in general is in poor taste these days. The apps have slowly been uninstalled from my life & I grew up with Myspace+Facebook. I struggle to see how anyone gains anything positive from social media interaction daily. It’s like a vice like drinking heavily but society hasn’t recognized it yet. Feels like it just warps peoples sense of reality.
It’s so disconnected from the actual products and their purpose – getting work done with the best tools FOR YOU.
I’m supposed to buy hart tools now because they have “dank memes”? Next pharmaceutical companies will be hosting twitch live streamers for health-critical medications.
ITCD
I for one can’t wait for influencer marketing about Viagra.
eddie sky
I used to watch a pair of “influencers” on youtube that promoted Hart tools. They were brother/sister outfit and while informative, they became more and more obnoxious. I would think that if they had “any” influence on Hart’s marketing, this is evident here.
Across the pond, seems something similar where people were duped to an AI generated promo of a Wonka Experience… it was Fyre Festival 2.0 and people got ripped off.
Fowler
This reminds me of the presentation Intel gave where they were sort of trying to say that the metrics that show AMD processors being better didn’t matter or weren’t important, but they just came off as really insecure and deflecting.
https://youtu.be/xUT4d5IVY0A?si=xOVNwpiJnUcPWTHH
Chris
Just another reason to avoid companies and “Influencers” on social media.
Al
Having seen those images and hearing the stories of the poor actors who were thrown into it with yhe instruction to improvise…this kinda makes sense in a meme way.
Just like any other meme, if you don’t know, it can be interpreted as a different message.
Use the FyreFest cheese sandwich image? Some people will still not get it.
I read it as a light-hearted shot of water across the bow.
TomD
Now if it came out that Hart actually PAID that poor woman so they could run this ad, then I’d feel quite a bit better about them and doing this.
As it is, I totally get what they’re trying to do but it just doesn’t fit the brand. Maybe harbor freight could have done it.
Mateo
I would say this is pretty accurate after the bait and switch that SBD craftsman has been after promising quality American made tools and never actually delivering.
Steve
Right! The ads (which I immediately “got” and found to be funny and fresh) maybe should have contrasted Craftsman Promises vs Tools instead of Ads vs Tools ?
ITCD
They did deliver, sorta. The challenge was keeping it within their current pricing scheme.
As for quality, everyone says their stuff is quality. Doesn’t mean squat, it’s puffery and it’s allowed in advertising because nobody wants to say “well our stuff is kinda garbage but at least it’s cheap.” Even Harbor Freight has “quality” on their store signs even before they started actually upping their game.
Being made in America also isn’t some automatic guarantee that whatever it is will be quality.
Scott K
I don’t think there too much to read into here. The best part is that Hart can’t backup the joke with their reputation. Hopefully there are some snarky posts from the targeted brands.
ken
This marketing is sad. Any respect for the brand from me is gone now if it wasn’t already. This is poor business, poor marketing and generally not ethical in my opinion. If you need to trash talk your competition like this it says something about your company. This is not how you build brand loyalty.
I got a foldable led hart worklight for for christmas from my kids. It was ok but bulky and not well designed. It lasted about a month and no longer works. Never abused and only saw about 3 or 4 hours of use and a few charges. It is absolutely dead now. Very poor quality i guess. I would have been better off with a chinese amazon brand with a funny name with a bunch of vowels!
Bobcat
You can’t beat craftsman best bang for the buck and they’re definitely professional tools they will hang with any of the professional brands out there for a lot less money
Mike Litoris
Did they pull the pics? I don’t see them on FB, Twitter or Instagram. 🤷♂️
Stuart
Looks like it was up a day before being pulled.
Joe E.
My opinion of the Craftsman brand and their tools under SBD ownership is about on par with Hart. Poor quality tools, poor marketing and sold at stores I genuinely despise shopping at.
Hart poking fun at Craftsman is about the equivalent of a meth head fighting shadow people.
Perry
Maybe I’m the only one, but I don’t get all the offense taken over this. It’s a failed ad that didn’t work, why is everyone clutching their pearls like it’s emotionally damaging?
They’re corporations, not neighbors hurling insults
ITCD
I dont think it’s offense being taken so much as cringe being expressed. Though I’m sure everyone can agree that if they had a photograph of them being involved in some debacle or something embarrassing that they’d rather disassociate with, they wouldn’t want it being poached by marketeers for cheap shots which furthers its spread.
Paul
The way I see it is there are two crucial components missing in a lot of this type of “Marketing”
1- Integrity
2- Accountability
Probably written by some young and self entitled (everyone gets a trophy) marketer.
Bryan
On a side note, on ads like these where a tool brand openly rips on another tool brand can there be legal consequences? And if so does anyone know of any cases?
ITCD
There’s no legal consequences in a criminal law way, it probably extends off of puffery being allowed in advertising (saying “we’re the best” even if they aren’t actually the best), and trademarks do have some fair use exceptions.
But in a civil sense, they might drag you to court over it (especially if they saw damages) but more than likely you’d just get a C&D.
Scottie
I could see if Hart was targeting the Sears Craftsman brand but the Stanley Black and Decker Craftsman brand is light-years ahead of Hart quality wise.Take their newer 72 tooth low profile rachets.Nice tight anvil.Solid heavy duty clicks.Feels balanced in the hand.Low profile.This is the ratchet that Stanley should’ve come out with for Craftsman when they launched their Craftsman line.Now the Sears Craftsman tool sets are available on Sears own website.Nothing but Hart style garbage ratchets.The sockets look decent and look like they’re sourced from Apex.But that’s all they offer.When you look at those sets it’ll just make you cry at how far Sears has fallen from the tool market.Sears used to sell practically everything.Who buys Hart anyways except the Walmart consumer who can’t even change a set of plugs in a car?