Advertising Is Good For You

"She pushed a hoop with a stick. A STICK."

Possibly the funniest line in any ad this year is in this Play Station 3 commercial.

Tweet of the Week

Creative writing

Source: The Sturdy Soapbox

Email stalking -- oh, what a feeling

Here's the tale of Amber Duick.

She's a Los Angeles woman who for five days received emails from someone she didn't know, a man named Sebastian Bowler. Sebastian told Amber he knew where she lived and told her he'd be coming to her home to hide from the police.

Amber says she feared she was being stalked and had trouble eating, sleeping and her job performance suffered.

When she found out the emails were part of a guerrilla advertising campaign for Toyota, she decided to sue Toyota for $10 million.

Of course advertising shouldn't be masquerading as a guy who's wanted by the police and is on his way to hide out at your house.

But what about a series of tongue-in-cheek emails from a guy who says he's wanted by the police and is on his way to hide out at your house?

I don't have access to all the emails, but here are two snippets from the emails sent by the fictitious Sebastian:

Amber mate! Coming 2 Los Angeles. Gonna lay low at your place for a bit till it all blows over.

Amber, ran into a little problem at the hotel. After I'm done visiting you, I'm going to go back and sort out that front desk Muppet. (this email included a bill for damages from a hotel)

THIS is the kind of thing that "terrified" Amber Duick? Seems to me the copywriter did a great job of injecting just enough cornball into the copy to clue in the reader that this is some kind of joke.

Read more about Amber Duick and her suit against Toyota.

Ever since I first read this story, in my mind's eye the role of Sebastian Bowler has been played by Terry Thomas.

If copywriters wrote warning signs

Source: Ffffound!

Holy crap

Some copywriters absolutely refuse to use a thesaurus. They think it's cheating or something. I think they're stupid. Or something.

Yesterday, while I was unapologetically using the free online thesaurus, I discovered two words I never knew existed:

crapulent

and

crapulous

Can't wait to use them in a sentence.

Not a snowball's chance I ever get to use either in advertising copy.

Questionable brand names

I say they're questionable. The Consumerist refers to this list as 7 Restaurant Dishes That Are Too Embarrassing To Order By Name:

1. Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad

2. Applebee's Chicken Parmesan Tanglers

3. Cheesecake Factory's Weight Management Asian Chicken Salad

4. P.F. Chang's Hot Fish

5. Cracker Barrel's Uncle Herchel's Favorite

6. Friendly's Super Sizzlin Sausage Sunrise

7. Outback Steakhouse's Chocolate Thunder From Down Under

I'd like to add to the list...

8. Denny's Moons Over My Hammy (my nephew Sean's favorite when he was a child)

Remembering David Ogilvy

Last Tuesday, July 21, was the 10th anniversary of David Ogilvy's death.

Ogilvy was sometimes referred to as The Father of Advertising. A copywriter by trade, he was one of the founders of Ogilvy & Mather, now called simply Ogilvy. If you want to know more about him, you can look HERE and HERE.

An innovator (as well as a product of his times) Ogilvy famously said, "The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her."

In the early days of Ogilvy & Mather, if two employees married, the wife was expected to resign -- it was company policy.

Anyway, in 1983, I was a baby copywriter and totally in awe of Ogilvy. So when Ogilvy on Advertising was published, of course I bought a copy.

And when Ogilvy's book tour came to Boston, I went to hear him speak at the Boston Public Library and dutifully waited in line afterward to get him to sign my copy of his book.

I wonder what a signed first edition of Ogilvy on Advertising goes for these days? Probably not that much.

Ogilvy's fallen out of favor. If an advertising creative is to maintain his/her hipster aura, ridiculing Ogilvy is a requirement.

Which is stupid, I think. Sure, by today's standards his work is dated. But the man was a pioneer and he deserves respect.

 

Many funs to be had with this ad

Love. Reminds me of one of my favorite websites, Engrish.

Addendum, posted 24 July 2009

The ad above is from a campaign created by David&Goliath, Los Angeles. Here are two more ads:

Junk mail fail

Going through the mail the other day, I came across a simple white envelope from one of my utility companies.

On the outside of the envelope was printed this headline:

IMPORTANT SERVICE NOTICE ENCLOSED.
PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY.

My blood pressure spiked as I read it.

I was convinced this was a statement from the utility telling me it about to turn off my service. I tore into that envelope convinced I was in for a months-long battle trying to proof that I was up to date on my payments.

My blood pressure spiked again when I saw what was inside: a letter trying to sell me an upgrade.

Direct response advertising is my specialty. No one knows better than I the importance of getting a prospect to open the envelope. BUT YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO PISS PEOPLE OFF IN THE PROCESS.

Disgusted, I threw the letter away. Then went back to fish it out so I could write this post.

Now I get the satisfaction of throwing it away a second time.

Some poor copywriter actually wrote the long articles being sawed, trimmed and blown around. They're kind of funny and dry at the same time. And a really nice attention to detail.

Source: Scary Ideas .

How most consumers will translate this headline

"Okay. Enough already with the letters. We get it. Our product tasted like glue. We've changed the formula, er, recipe. Now our instant potatoes taste more . . . kinda . . . sorta . . . homemade."

Just one additional word would have saved this mediocre headline

Now with more fruit! sounds defensive, as if Breyers had been losing customers because of the paltry portion of fruit in its yogurt. The addition of the exclamation point only adds to the desperation.

Now with even more fruit! implies Breyers had already been ridiculously generous with the fruit and, now, because the company just so loves to please its customers, it's gone and added even more fruity goodness to its yogurt.