Bad ads, and some good ones

Out of the previous blogposts there are a lot of genius works, but of course some bad ones too. I want to take a deeper look at them here and find out why they're so seriuosly good (horrible).

Good ad -


Woolworths, Maria and Stavros

The reason why I like this ad so much is mainly because it is so comprehensive yet creative. Strategy wise, its use of both rational and emotional appeals not only put forward the freshness of Woolworths' products but also generated a generally good image of the brand. What's even cooler is the fact that the ad itself was in another ethnic language (Greek), lifting up that warm and fussy grass root friendliness. As for the audience who couldn't understand the language, the use of an old couple still managed to relate to mostly everyone throughout its association with family, grandparents, and everyday life.

Creative wise, it is a pleasant surprise to see Woolsworths quietly sways itself away from the cliche price-oriented promotions. Instead of telling us what is on sale and trying too hard to persuade us to move our ass to the supermarket, it is actually working on something long-term and more enduring, that is the brand image and personality of the retailer. Another thing to be noted is the humorous and down-to-earth tone used in the ad (especially if you understand Greek). By watching the ad, it makes the consumers immediatly relate themselves, or people around them, to Woolworths, and furthermore develope an intimate and friendly connection with the brand.

Bad ad -

Big House Communications, We Get Them

One word: Creepy. Especially when the ad is coming from a creative communications company, it makes us wonder, if this is how they promote themselves, how are they going to help our company... I mean, we don't want to "trap" our clients like ants or spiders!

Anyway, while the creativity of the campaign is still acknowledged, this ad seems to take the wrong strategy as they did not throughly examine the appropriateness of the ad content. The reason lies in although this is a B2B ad, essentially the heart of marketing and advertising is still based on a people relationship. In this case, target audience has the tendency to feel pressurised and intimidated, because they will relate themselves to the tiny customers that are "trapped" in the ad by the agency.

Moreover, as advertising is all about its effectiveness as a part of the company's marketing activities, I assessed these 2 ads using a research conducted by Jagdish N. Sheth commenting on some theoratical considerations of evaluating advertising effectiveness. In his article, 3 aspects are especally mentioned, namely the strength of impression an ad makes in a customer's mind, the influence an ad plays in consumer's buyer decision making process, and an ad's role in increasing a buyer's consumption of the product / service advertised.

Based on the three considerations, while it is certain that the creativity of these two ads above gave both away in the first column that evaluates impression, we can however see Big House Communications' campaigns appearing to be weaker while it is presented in the audience's decision making process due to the lack of likelihood in its ad association.

However, only thing we can be sure is: while Maria and Stavros may be forgotten soon after woolworths' new commercial comes out, the bad ad is gonna long live in our heart... At least it's made an impression, no?

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Credits:

Big House Communications "We Get Them"
Advertising Agency: Big House Communications, Vancouver, Canada
Associate Creative Director: Michael Bryden
Art Directors: Mike Fiorentino, Michael Bryden
Copywriter: Chris Kostyal
Photographer: Peter Holst
Published: August 2007

References:

Journal of Marketing - A model for predictive measurements of advertising effectiveness


JSTOR - Measurement of Advertising Effectiveness: Some Theoretical Considerations

Jagdish N. ShethJournal of Advertising, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1974), pp. 6-11


Jeff Vincent - Trap Your Little Customers
from his blog How to not get a job in advertising


J.