Bad advertising ain't bad press
In Hollywood, it is believed that any press is good press. Any exposure is good exposure. As long as you’re talked and gossiped about... you’re in! You sell!
Is this true in advertising? Can you simply reproduce any cute or quirky piece of advertising on a published page in the hope that exposure alone will sell your product or service? Can you rationalise, “Well, my customer will see my logo in the shops, remember how funny the ad was, and will then buy my product.”? I sincerely doubt it. Consider this, did Ford ask: “Have you seen a Ford LOGO lately?” to sell cars? No. “Have you DRIVEN a Ford lately?” was the phrase. It comes down to the product and how its benefits are portrayed.
The truth is, if that campaign doesn’t sell and sell hard, it will damage your brand. And, unfortunately the bigger and better aimed your media schedule is, the more damage you’ll cause in the minds of your target market. If your creative is not up to scratch, you better pray your ad placements for your product slips into the Pofadder School Newspaper by accident, the obscurer the media the better..
In the end, it comes down to what your advertising is selling. Your brand? Or your ad agency? Is winning creative awards the point? Are advertising awards the yardstick in the measure of an advertising agency? Are growth in sales the criteria for winning advertising awards?
In retrospect, we have seen lots of bad advertising win advertising awards. We may have laughed at them, or shed a tear when it touched our soul, but did they make us grab for our wallets? The better agencies can do both. We CAN make you laugh and cry and make your brand FLY!
