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Number
72: October 6, 2004
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This week in Katydid:
When
Good Commercials Go Bad
Like a catchy jingle, they're in our heads and we can't get them out. No
matter how hard you pound your head against the desk you're not going to
get rid of that image of 'Smiling Bob'. He's there to stay, along with a
whole cast of deviant characters you'd rather not remember, let alone
whistle along with.
Advertisements are often bad by design. For example, those Quizno's
critters, the 1-800 geeks, the
Mentos… uh… thumbs? (I swear I have
found my children dancing and singing about Pepto-Bismol.) They take
advantage of an old memory trick –when you want to recall something,
associate it with a ridiculous image.
Very often ads turn out bad because they're not innovative or clever.
Sometimes that's a result of creative compromises. In fact, some
advertisers have issued a call to arms to encourage more trust (and
greater risk) in advertising agencies. Unfortunately (or prudently),
they pulled back and gutted the current site; but with the wonders of
the web site Wayback
Machine, you can still view an archive of the old
site.
Many ads fail because they miss wide off their target. For example,
the Jamaican Hip-Hop elephants for Skippy Peanut Butter Bars offend
their intended audience as badly as if their dads attempted to rap at
their birthday party. (Don't ask.)
Advertising is the art people love to hate. You can find many blogs
and message boards dedicated to advertising. My favorites offer scoops
and rants from the insiders. There is even a graveyard for advertising
pulled for poor taste and unfortunate (or deliberate) subtext.
However, advertising is often bad by mistake. These are the ads that
may have made sense in the pitch meeting, but completely undermine their
message when viewed in real life.
My favorite example goes back a few years. It's a commercial for
Werther's Original hard candy. It depicted a kindly, gray-haired man with a
young boy seated on his lap. Presumably, the boy was his grandson. He
was giving the boy candy – a special, conspiratorial treat. This was
meant to evoke a memory of an earlier time and associate the loving bond
between grandfather and grandson with the candy. Sadly, times have
changed and the image of older family members who invite their children
onto their laps in exchange for candy has a different emotional charge
to it today.
Perhaps I just have a twisted view of things, but a few choices
undermined the purity of the message. The commercial was shot in soft
focus; presumably to create an atmosphere of nostalgia. Unfortunately,
it's also a technique used more commonly in romantic settings – more
specifically in the soft-core films found late at night on premium cable
or early in the afternoon on soap operas. Additionally, the actor
playing the grandfather has a look of pleasure on his face that in the
romantic context becomes rather unsettling. What they intended to be a
nostalgic memory looked more like a repressed memory.
The advertisers could have avoided these unfortunate connotations in
a few ways. They could have used another technique to evoke nostalgia
such as sepia tone. The actor could have chosen another emotional
subtext – pride rather than pleasure.
In a similar way, a recent AOL for Broadband advertisement has a
subtext that contradicts its central message. The advertisers intended
to demonstrate that a firewall feature would protect your children from
offensive material. It shows a young boy in his room surfing the web.
Behind the boy is a burly man in a tight, black t-shirt and jeans. The
burly man sneaks up from behind and puts his hand over the boy's eyes to
keep him from seeing any distasteful content.
However, the man standing in the room behind the boy looks less like
a bodyguard and more like a bouncer at a 'gentlemen's club' or someone
more at home in a leather bar. He doesn't look like someone I'd leave
alone in a room late at night with my children. Never mind what the
voiceover or text of the commercial is, we process the visual
information first. Language will rarely trump image.
They could just as easily put the bodyguard in a white t-shirt, which
would have seemed less threatening. Better yet, they could have put him
in a suit with glasses and an earpiece to appear like a member of the
Secret Service.
Other commercials suffer from what I call shoutback. Like audiences at
the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the commercials just beg you to interact
with the screen. Take, for example, that new Viagra commercial, the 'He's
Back' campaign: a man shopping with his wife (or mistress) passes the
shop window of a lingerie boutique. He gives his wife a sly look and
grows blue Viagra horns. The voiceover asks us to remember that guy who
was spontaneous and fun; who wanted to spend his entire honeymoon
indoors.
I can't help but shout back to the television, "Remember
that guy who treated women like objects? The one who never thought to
call a woman after their third 'date'? Remember the one who thought
buying one drink was foreplay and three drinks was permission? Well,
he's back!"
(This morning I had to laugh aloud because I saw the commercial
again, and the first line of the commercial immediately afterward was,
"Do you do your best thinking in the shower?")
Problems like these usually result from the creative team being too
close to the material. They know the context in which the images evolved
and so could not imagine them being taken the wrong way. The simplest
solution is to screen the material beforehand to someone outside the
creative process. You need a devil's advocate who will be honest with
you, and who can see the unintended subtext you might have missed.
Years ago, I worked for a training company. We had done all our
advertising creative in-house, but after some success, our budget
increased and we decided to use an agency. It was exciting to work with
the big boys. It was also annoying to see how much more credibility the
agency had as the hired hands. After all, I was hired for the lowest amount
they could negotiate and the agency was hired because, "You've got
to pay a premium for quality."
The agency came up with a new tagline for the company that they
thought underscored the value messaging of quality training: better
knowledge. The tagline they come up with was "Know Better."
The CEO and VP's loved it. I tried to point out at the meetings that
people might misread "Know Better" as "No Better"
and that our competition would surely be able to exploit the unfortunate
association and its contradictory subtext. Some might misread it as
"Know better than to work with these guys."
They waved me off with
assurances that nobody would think that way, and that we could
control the meaning with context. In short, they were all drinking the
same Kool-Aid. We went forward with it anyway as part of an extremely
expensive rebranding effort. The campaign fell flat in spectacular
fashion and the tagline was dropped quickly. (No pats on the back to the
poor grunt who pointed out the Emperor's new clothes were a tad sheer.
<sigh>)
Bull in a China Shop
You have to anticipate how your imagery or language will appear out of
context, which is notoriously difficult to control. You shouldn't natter away at
every possible confusion, but you have to eliminate the ones that directly contradict your
value messaging even if it means losing some very
cool creative. One way is to imagine how someone might parody your
commercial. Some of Saturday Night
Live's best material comes from
commercials. I've always wanted to see the following parody:
FADE IN:
INT – CHINA SHOP – DAY
RODNEY enters. We see him from the waist up. He's a young
professional in a suit and tie. He's smiling with a quiet assurance. He
approaches another young man (JIM) who is also dressed professionally.
JIM
Rod, you look great. Is that a new belt?
CUT TO:
JIM's point of view (POV). We see Rodney from the waist up standing
next to a tall display of crystal wine glasses. He gives a
conspiratorial smile.
RODNEY
No.
CUT TO:
RODNEY"S POV. Rodney turns to look another direction. We hear
the SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS as it apparently hits the floor. We see
another young man (BILL) who looks up from the plate he's examining and
notices Rodney. He apparently doesn't notice the broken glass.
BILL
Hi Rod, looking great. New haircut?
CUT TO:
BILL'S POV. Again from the waist up. Rodney standing next to a
display of China, shakes his head no, smiles, winks, and turns his body to look
another direction.
CUT TO:
RODNEY'S POV. We hear again the SOUND OF CRASHING CHINA as it falls
to the floor. Rodney wanders up to the counter where a CASHIER handles
the purchases of a YOUNG WOMAN. The woman's back is turned to Rodney as
he approaches, but about a foot before he gets to her, she stumbles
forward as if nudged. She turns to see Rodney, at first startled, but a
smile of recognition crosses her face.
WOMAN
Oh, there you are! I didn't see you come in. (beat) Say,
there's something about you today. You're looking more confident. Is
that a new suit?
WOMAN'S POV. Rodney smiles. In the background behind him, we can see
the shop littered with shattered pieces of China and stemware. You hear
the crunching of glass as BILL walks obliviously down the aisle.
CUT
TO:
RODNEY'S POV. The Cashier smiles at Rodney as she hands the credit
card and receipt to the WOMAN who takes her shopping bag. Rodney puts
his arm around the woman and they walk together toward the exit.
CUT TO:
ANOTHER ANGLE. Over the shoulder of the CASHIER, we see Rodney and
the Woman from behind as they approach the exit door of the China shop.
WOMAN
I bought the most impressive glass figurine. You're going to
love it.
As they approach the exit, about a foot before they get to door, it
swings violently open. Rodney and the Woman exit.
CASHIER
Wow, that guy sure looked confident.
The cashier looks on as Bill approaches the door just after Rodney
exits. Bill starts to walk through but slams his face against the glass.
ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
Viagra, for the man who wears his confidence
proudly.
FADE TO BLACK:
If you see it on late night TV, remember you read it here first.
Avoid
Unsightly Adverts
If you want to prevent these kinds of embarrassments, it's easiest to
catch them early in the creative. Once you've gone far enough in the
process, the thought of money wasted may have you fearing the worst but
hoping for the best. Whether you're looking for a new creative spin or
someone to play devil's advocate before you launch a new campaign, I'm
ready to help you put your best foot forward.
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Kevin Troy Darling
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