Twisting the Knife

If the infamous Super Bowl ads are any indication of the state of todays big-box advertising, based on what I saw this year, we are in one of the worst creative times I’ve ever seen.

Wendy’s isn’t in the wig business

Like many agencies who are confused about what advertising is and when to use what technique and to what degree, Saatchi & Saatchi recently found out once again that humor is nice but means little to sales. In this case it was Wendy’s Red Wig campaign. I’m sure you’ve seen it. It involves real life scenarios with the added humor of someone wearing a red wig similar in look to the Wendy’s logo. In fact I bet it made you chuckle. But as I say over and over, people want to know what is in it for them and what connection does it have to their lives. But disappointing sales results and the December departure of the campaign’s champion, Chief Marketing Officer Ian Rowden are signs that once again big budget spots waste time and forget the #1 rule of advertising, sell the product. Funny, all they had to do was listen to one franchisee who in a recent interview in Ad Age said it better than I could. When asked about the campaign and it’s failing grade he said:

“The red wig has become an excellent icon. People see that red wig and they think of Wendy’s, but to that you have to attach an emotion or rational link, and that’s what we’ve been lacking.”

They should have simply hired him. He could have saved them a lot of money and made a spot that was spot on, not wigged out. But it’s also tough when you are an agency and have to go with your clients creative.

A new year but I can’t get over some of last year’s worse

I mentioned this campaign earlier. It is Hyundai’s new direction in branding. I think it’s the equivalent of taking bags of cash and throwing them out a window. Even worse, no one finds the bags because they get caught on a ledge on their way down. This probably gets my vote for worst campaign of 2007.
UPDATE: Published: January 17, 2008 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In what seems a most unlikely ploy to drum up pre-Super Bowl buzz, Hyundai Motor North America today ended its Hamlet-like indecision and said it is committed to keeping the ad time that it has bought for the Super Bowl.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=123159

My comment: Even if it is a ploy, you can’t make up for a horrible ad campaign.

Coke once taught the world to sing

Ever since Coke figured out how to market a lifestyle with some of their great campaigns of the seventies, they saw their market share and brand recognition go through the roof. But like many old dogs, they somehow think they can re-live the glory. This is one of the many failing campaigns that tries to do that. Does it make you want to run out and buy a Coke? Does it even make you remember Coke? Does it make you feel good? Or like me are you simply waiting for the show to come back on, and while this is on, look to see what your cat is doing.

Duh um!!!!

Wow does it get any worse than Hyundai’s Duh Campaign spots. Yet more proof that a agencies idea are mostly born from idiotic concepts that know little about how to sell, while the folks that believe their pithes are, duh um.

Amnesia

What this promo which wants you to be part of this agencies team does is no different than what most advertising by companies like this do. It’s great fun to look at with  pictures and music that stimulates the brain, but do you remember it? More importantly, do you care?

Where American Values Are

Yahoo’s Top 10 Searches of 2007.

 

1. Britney Spears

2. WWE

3. Paris Hilton

4. Naruto, The Japanese Manga Series

5. Beyonce

6. Lindsay Lohan

7. RuneScape

8. Fantasy Football

9. Fergie

10. Jessica Alba

Let’s see, dysfunctional singers, fantasy football, and video games. What does that say? Our world is based on fantasy and not necessarily good fantasy. Forget universal health care. We need therapy!

Let’s go to the videotape!

This is sort of a time traveling post. STOP! Let’s go back in time to just a few months ago.
The new 2008 Chevrolet Malabu is being released on November 1st. As the press release says they will have a huge one day “take-over” of the biggest online portals.

On TV expect to see major coverage during World Series games and all over TV, on every billboard you see, and just about every place you can expect, or will not expect a major ad campaigns. As Ed Peper of Chevy states:

“We are introducing the all-new Malibu to America with a ‘no stone left unturned’ marketing effort. We want the entire country to know that this car, which is designed to be the best in the mid-size segment, is coming, and that it has bulletproof quality, coupled with beautiful interior and exterior design”.

OK! Let’s come back to December 1, 2007. Shhh! Listen!!! What do you hear? Nothing? Yea, what a waste of a campaign. I’d say it was like a rock!

WANTED…CHEF, IMMEDIATE OPENING AVAILABLE

Okay, it got my attention. I would have been more effective had they left the shot of her skin peeling out. I’d rather imagine what happened than seen it. Not that the gore and shock value can’t work, it’s just that it isn’t necessary. The rest of the ads for this campaign are pretty lame.

Free Press!

I can understand how Black Friday became so popular. Basically between stores opening at ridiculously early hours, offering all sorts of gimmicks, and news organizations covering such ridiculousness, which creates hysteria, Black Friday has become a part of American culture. Without the press, Black Friday would never exist.

So how do you get folks to shop online? How do you create Cyber Monday? Well if you are the National Retail Federation, you make press releases and hope the press catches on and helps you create a whole new term. I must admit Cyber Monday isn’t really original, but I guess that is the best they could come up with. And what does a press release stating that today is Cyber Monday get you? How about this headline I just read on CNN.com:

Grab that mouse, it’s time to shop

Online retailers are poised to log record-breaking sales today when hordes of shoppers go searching for sales on what has become known as Cyber Monday. According to the National Retail Federation, 72 million consumers plan to shop online from home or at work today.

And there you have the true definition of Free Press. When you use the press to give you free advertising. “Poised to log record-breaking sales today”? Wow! How the press can predict the future, or did they just copy that word for word from the press release. I’ll let you guess.

Just don’t tell this to companies like Pay Pal that do a lot of selling online. PayPal’s Susan Phillips said the busiest shopping day online isn’t Cyber Monday, but rather the second Monday in December.

Dissent from the ranks? They better get their act, apparently this attempt to make another national shopping day isn’t going as well as planned.

POST SCRIPT: 12/2/07

Okay so it wasn’t the blockbuster they expected, but they are certainly on their way to concocting yet another day of sales hype that has no purpose but to convince folks to buy, buy buy!!  This year $10.74 billion was spent compared to last years $9.14 billion. That’s 17% more than last year.