Monday, 23 April 2012

My Ads of Fame Collection: Why do brands lie today?

We don't see great ads anymore. What we see are ads done for the clients or ads done by the agencies to bag awards. I have nothing against awards. They remind you that you are still in people's good book. Just that a large percentage of these award winning works are recycled. People doing the same thing under new names. And I have nothing against Clients, it's just that most are not in touch with reality. In these days of Google and Social Media, most ads still stink of lies. Fast broadband. Caring bank.  Shame.

In this Collection, you'll notice that the Creators of these ads had one objective in mind: to connect with their audience so they might care about their offerings. They first sought to interest their audience, then they went on to sell the offering in a simple yet profound way. Above all, they said the truth and ran away. Great ads are about truth but then truth well told. Enjoy

A Bill Bernbach's classic where truth always wins out in Advertising.  When you know you are not no 1, how do you find strength in that? Now, don't try this with today's delusional brands. They are always No 1.

This is one of the most famous of Ogilvy's ads. Way back in the 60s.  When you are selling a generic thing like a work shirt, you need to put some spin on it. Don't just use models for modelling sake [ like we have on our streets today, posing for the camera is not advertising. Smiling faces. That's photography. Do something crazy and run away ]

Way back then, Leo Burnett did stunning jobs for Kellogg's Corn flakes and this one is timeless. The product is in view but not forced into the view. The focus is on the moment. The Copy is not pretentious. It's just Corn Flakes for God's sake! What we see today are commodities ads that flaunt the number of vitamins they contain plus the name of the Chairman sitting on their board [ now, I made that last one up ]

I bet there's no Advertising book worth its salt where this Bill's work has not been mentioned. The only sad thing is no one has the gut to do such an ad. If this ad was done today, I guess the Brand team would insist that 'small' is not in their dictionary.  Why do people tell lies today, even when we have Goggle to tell us that your broadband is not actually 3.9G as claimed in your advertising.  [ Kenny, 3.9! How far? ]  There must be something sexy about telling the truth in advertising especially when you know how to turn it around to your advantage. 


Great ads have some edge to them. This was grabbed from the famous  Super bowl commercial of Apple in 1984.  

At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. That's Ogilvy for you. Nothing to add.  


3 comments:

  1. Nice one Kenny. Hitting the nail on the head as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  2. true and deep...

    ReplyDelete
  3. How do we run out of these "lying" mentality? is it becos ad agencies are myopic or cos wea not well read enof on the brand or cos thats wot the client wants to hear?

    i believe that the client has a major part to play in this. Im sure uv worked with clients dat will almost dictate to u, as if u are an onlooker and he is the ad man.

    Also, i really think we need enof "skools" to help build ad plp up. most of us just liv on the knowledge we gathered wile in skool, wile some cant afford the fees of few "skools" we have around.

    thus, me think u should consider dat aspect of fees @ Orange Academy *wink *wink (lol, just smile and ignore or consider).

    ReplyDelete

Share your own experience