More great insight from Drayton – informs and entertains a rare combination!
… And what’s right with this commercial?
What follows comes under the heading of dumb and dumber – followed by bloody brilliant.
So if want to know what NOT to do keep reading.
And if you want to see what I consider the second best TV ad I ever saw, and profit from what it teaches, you should definitely keep reading.
The picture at the top was under an e-mail headed just Social Media.
That is dumb.
People are certainly interested in Social Media. They are interested in many things.
Take cars.
A poll once revealed that most men loved their cars more than their wives.
But would you run an ad for Mercedes headed Car? Would McDonalds run an ad headed Hamburgers?
You do not get people to read your stuff just because you mention the subject. The subject line or the headline is there to get people to read on. It has no other purpose.
In this case to add to the folly the picture is an example of what I call Jerk-off Creative.
Hands up who thinks a dune buggy or whatever it is has anything to do with social media.
Step forward who thinks a sad, bad pun about sails/sales resembles a reason to buy in any way, shape or form.
If you want to be any good at this game you must understand how words and pictures work together.
Years ago Ogilvy & Mather did research into which pictures work and which don’t. Those that work relate to the subject or better still demonstrate the benefit. The others are either a waste of space or, even worse, downright confusing.
In a moment you can watch the second best commercial I ever saw. As you will see, it is a demonstration.
There is an insane idea afoot that advertising is better than it was. This idea is mostly among younger people who cannot be bothered to study, but also among older people who have managed to succeed without studying.
I suspect advertising is worse than it was in the ’60’s, largely because education is worse.
This commercial was made in 1967. Note that it is really aimed at businesses. People think businesses buy for logical reasons. This tugs at the heart strings. Do you think logic would have worked as well?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmczbfVhfX0
The world is full of fools who think anybody can do advertising. Thank God that means the rest of us can make money from their folly.
If what you just read and saw made sense to you, maybe my absurdly cheap offer to help you write and persuade better will make even more sense.
Best,
Drayton
3 Dragon Marketing 