Jerry Seinfeld recently recently started a harsh, but funny, rant about advertising at the Clio awards by saying, “I love advertising because I love lying.”
He went on to say “I think spending your lives trying to dupe innocent people out of hard-won earnings to buy useless, low-quality, misrepresented items and services is an excellent use of your energy.”
It got me thinking about truth in advertising. Some advertisers may have earned their reputation as snake oil salesmen. But I think that consumers get the last laugh. The better that marketers get at breaking through the clutter, the better consumers get at ignoring any message that marketers send their way.
The real truth in advertising is that most advertising is ignored altogether.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed cartoon print. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)
Ori Pomerantz says
Marketing is really hard because you’re trying to get attention from people in an ADHD culture who are inundated by messages all the time.
One method is to yell louder, but everybody else is doing it. Yelling louder is also very expensive. Advertising isn’t cheap.
Another method is to have something interesting to say, for example “pouring a bucket of ice over your head”. This takes a lot less money, but a lot more creativity.
The third method is to have something relevant to say. This is the promise of targeted advertising. So far, that promise is unfulfilled and the attempts to do it are creepily invasive.
Brian Buck says
The real question for me is, “Does advertising get ignored because it’s the wrong message or does it get ignored because it’s presented in the wrong medium?”
My favorite commercial today is the one spoofing horror films – you the know one, instead of driving off in the running car they hide behind the chainsaws. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the brand is and what the horror film has to do with the brand being advertised (it’s either a commercial for car insurance or gardening tools; I fear it’s the former). The point being, the ad caught my attention but it failed to capture much more than that. The current trend is that you need these kitschy concepts and/or shocking images to capture attention and once you’ve captured the attention, consumers will remember the brand. That’s a little insulting to us consumers. It’s true that many of us are drawn to things that are new or that we haven’t seen before, but the reality is we are more drawn to authenticity than gimmicky.
The advent of the ad age was all about print. Then TV replaced print. Digital is replacing TV. And now digital is being marginalized. We tend to think the evolution of advertising has to do with advances in technology and the ability to better target and be more efficient. The reality is, the evolution has everything to do with where our eyeballs are. We just don’t read print as much, we DVR everything, and spend more time online than we do in line. The problem advertisers are facing now is that they are using the power of technology to force unwanted advertising onto the consumer which forces consumers to innovate to avoid the ads, such as the cunning use of a “mute” or “skip” button.
I believe the answer to my question is, “both”. The sure fire way to break through to any consumer is to have the right message delivered in the right medium. I wish I could say that’s an easy thing to do. I believe advertising is still more artful than scientific. And it still starts with a brand’s ability to know its customer. The brands that have close relationships with their customers often fair better than those that think their customers hide behind chainsaws.
From Volkswagen’s “Think Small” to Apple’s iconic “1984” to even today’s most recent phenomena ALS’ “Ice Bucket Challenge” – none of them were ignored because they all had the right message delivered in the right medium reaching the right customer.
Gail Kernes says
or just be Apple Think different, offer the dream, deliver the reality.
Gail Kernes says
or be Apple. Think Different, Promise the Dream, Deliver the Reality.
T. Groves says
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising. — Mark Twain
Yes, a lot of advertising goes unnoticed yet every now again a creative spark is able finesse the right amount of inspiration or novelty with the message. Apple was already mentioned. Here are a few other ideas:
Inspiration: This Swedish Subway ad for shampoo http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/another-subway-ad-blows-womans-hair-around-trains-arrive-theres-twist-160588
Novelty: Sexy CPR ad for lingerie
Anne C. Bech says
Good point Brian Buck we need to focus more on the relationship and how the product/brand really helps the consumer/customers.
Marek says
Or maybe people (or as we used to call them – shoppers) try hard do not believe so easy in content of advertising. They want the real value instead of bunch of traps 🙂