I've worked in advertising, and I've ranted. Two great tastes that go great together.
"American" Car manufacturers, 30mpg (highway) for a subcompact SUCKS. Quit trying to sell me on how great your vehicle line up is for cars that are in their second revision that you've never advertised on TV before, who get worse gas mileage than the car I traded in four years ago. Oh, and I bitch and moan when my Civic gets 36mpg highway during the winter. So having your top mileage below that, you aren't working hard enough (and spare me the "what the market wanted" or I'll expose the SUV and especially the Hummer 2-3 for what they are). We can build them. Hell, we are building them. You're engineers and market "gurus" can't get their heads out of their asses fast enough on this issue. Oh, and keep putting the battery below the washer fluid reservoir and other things that make it difficult to work on simple things ourselves.
Subway "Burger Barn Commercial." Paranoia? FU Subway. No soup for you. Oh, and Jerod's major weight loss, ski machine, not your stinking sandwiches. I'm going to remind everybody I know about that. He used exercise. Oh, and this commercial (plus the fact that Sub Sandwiches have the bread holding meat and other stuffings, they were not, Not, farging NOT meant to be a vehicle to flavor the bread with meat) you're not getting anymore of my money.
Five Million people have called Consolidated Credit? How many of those were, "Please put me on your no call list." And no, he doesn't look good.
There's this new commercial for an anti-perspirent, don't remember the name. Has some hot brunette, shows her under arm with a wet spot. Gee, that isn't cool (but holding her arm up pulls her blouse tight to show off her nice rack). Then she uses product, is dancing like a teenaged boy does (really, nobody dances like that except uptight people at weddings), has hunk come up behind her, she reaches up and behind to grab his skull. Look, no wet spot (and still nice rack). Two words for whatever company this is (really, don't even remember the name, I barely remember your product). Sex sell (obviously), but get some production values, dude. This looks like it was produced by a high-school freshman AV club (and not a good one). Oh, and when I was free and out dancing in clubs, if I had a shot at the hot brunette, a wet spot under her arm isn't going to stop me. I'm dancing, more than likely I'm sweaty too. Plus, if all goes well, the blouse isn't going to be an issue after a while. Sex sells.
Sometimes I'm very embarrassed for my profession.
4 comments:
Wow, that's some rant!
Well, at some point I get fed up with things.
The quality of advertising has gone down hill since I've been in this business. The quality of design is so low, I just can't believe it. Sure, there's still some good stuff out there, but the signal to noise ratio has gone down the crapper. Now, what had been consider mediocre when I started are the shining examples of the craft. Much of what is printed these days, wouldn't have passed muster when I started.
The content and quality of advertising are often accurate indicators of the mental and intellectual health of a society. Is our society in decline or regressing into inanity . . . or both? I'm thinking option #3. I don't see anything but superficial values reflected in the face of modern advertising and sometimes outright mockery of intelligence.
Leaf, well I think most of these commercials are just poor examples of the craft. It's examples of how advertising can be a cynical profession, or people just forget the fundamentals (such as production values are important).
Just this past week I felt I needed to question a client's design because of just plain brain deadness. Let's just say they were about to print on an envelope that a cash like product was enclosed and then to be sent through the mail. Yeah, not a good idea (although it works in conference rooms). The mail is generally secured, but let us not tempt fate.
Post a Comment