Grey Poupon only wants Facebook fans with good taste

Most brands will allow anyone to become a fan on Facebook. After all, the more the merrier, right? Not Grey Poupon. The fancy mustard makers (our description, not theirs) have launched a Facebook app that scans the profile of interested fans and only accepts applicants with “good taste.”

According to the folks behind the campaign, the app uses an algorithm that will “search and judge users’ profiles based on their proper use of grammar, art taste, restaurant check-ins, books read and movie selections, to name a few. If the algorithm detects poor taste in music or TXT speak, for example, they could be rejected for membership. Those who do not qualify in the upper percentile will have their ‘like’ deleted, and be asked to refine their profile before trying again.”

One Pavone staffer, who ranks his own good taste “somewhere between Barry Manilow and AC/DC” (whatever that means) put the app to the test and narrowly gained admission into Grey Poupon’s exclusive society. And so, it appears that the society’s standards aren’t that high. Is it still a great campaign and great mustard? You bet!

MARKETING LESSON: People have a natural urge to be a part of an exclusive group, even if that group is devoted to gourmet mustard.