Sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. A Snicker Kiss. Men In Thongs. What's Gone Wrong Here Promotionally!
Just this month, Boston received an apology and $2 Million for a TURNER BROADCASTING campaign gone wrong. Blinking electronic devices were left on bridges and subway stations for some crazy reason to help promote a late-night cartoon, AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE on Turner’s Cartoon Network about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a wad of meat!
What kind of insane person would create, much less approve of, such a wacky campaign? I wonder.
For the SUPER BOWL, MARS showed two men committing violence against themselves after they accidentally kiss! This would sell candy bars? Come on. Something’s gone wrong on Madison Avenue. A while ago, a beer company (whose name I won’t mention out of respect for the church) actually created a contest to sell beer, “Sex For Sam 3,” by daring someone to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Imagine that! This to sell beer?
What geniuses on Madison Avenue are creating these monstrous ads and wouldn’t the public know better? No wonder that Pepsi asked the public to create a Doritos spot for the Super Bowl instead of their usual “creative sources.” We obviously have a shortage of promotional talents in America if all they can do is create campaigns that are offensive, not pertinent and cause friction in the community.
MEN IN THONGS selling beer? Followed by an apology by the company for the commercial on the Super Bowl was a complete embarrassment for the company and the viewers.
And how ‘bout the jockstrap commercial for the NFL? Outrageous.
When I worked on Madison Avenue for YOUNG & RUBICAN, a large prestigious Advertising Agency, everything we did was to promote the client’s brand to sell more goods and services. Nowadays, no one pays attention to the objectives and instead focuses on creating the wackiest ads just for the sake of attention without regard to the client’s aims.
Another example is the milk campaign where celebrities are photographed with a milk mustache. This is insane. It’s been proven that the campaign has failed to sell more milk despite the fact that the campaign continues, I suppose, just for the sake of amusement. That’s expensive amusement! And Mayor Menino agrees.
Let’s go back to the grey flannel suit era where advertising and promotional campaigns had class, were pertinent, and sold the goods and services agencies were paid to produce.
We’ve gotten far-a-field, and pay attention more to gimmicks, celebrities, and non-effective ways of promotions that do nothing but waste stockholders’ money without any redeeming value.
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