I don't much like what interrupts my television, radio, online, visual content these days. Most advertising is dumb as dirt. Dave Lubars, President and Chief Creative Officer of BBDO tells us in Adweek that he believes that the secret to success in this business is the placement of a "Big Friggin' Hairy Idea in the middle of the brand universe that can be expressed in television, online, print, matchbooks, condoms, what have you. Nice speech Dave. But I think he only got it half right. Two out of four words isn't all that bad for a dude what pulls down a clip under a million bucks a year for his opinion. Now don't get me wrong. I think the Monster.com campaign is pretty powerful stuff. But tell me this Dave. If your "Big Friggin' Hairy Idea in the middle of the brand universe is "Your calling Is Calling," then what the hell is "Make Your Move" doing on center stage when you go to Monster.com? In fact, why is it that your "Big Friggin' Hairy Idea" is no where to be found on the Monster.com website? Could it be that the client didn't get the memo? Or could it be that you didn't bother to check out the client's product before embarrassing yourself on an Adweek video? Personally, I don't think it was either of those things. Like I said, I think you only got two of the four words right. It's not the placement of a "Big Friggin' Hairy Idea in the middle of the brand universe. It's the placement of a "Big Friggin' Scary Idea in the middle of the brand universe. For the new Lean Advertising Network White Paper |
|---|
Now I'm willing to bet that the guy who approved the No matter how weird you may be, Monster.com has the perfect job for you strategy could not convince the gal who approved the Make Your Move web content strategy, that weird was the way to go. "Weird" was too scary for her to bet the farm on. What if nobody had ever seen the "Your Calling Is Calling," campaign? What if they just showed up on Monster.com's doorstep because it was the biggest doorstep in the job hunter's universe? What if these folks were offended by being considered weird? What if they just wanted to be considered normal, everyday out of working slobs? Did I mention Dave and guys like him are getting close to a million bucks a year just for getting it wrong? I look at the disconnect between Monster.com's advertising and Monster.com's website as a big vote of "No confidence" in Dave's your "Big Friggin' Hairy Idea. And rightly so. "Your Calling Is Calling." Jobs.com. "Your Calling Is Calling." CareerBuilder.com. "Your Calling Is Calling." JobFox.com. I'm not trying to blow Dave up. He claims that there has been a big change at BBDO during the past three years. Damn Straight. The legendary Phil Dusenberry is dead. And Dave has some monstrous shoes to fill. And nobody to help him fill them. Big Scary Ideas like "Avis. We're Number Two. We Have To Try Harder." Big Scary Ideas like, "Joe Isuzu" ( Who's biggest lie was that the unknown truck and engine manufacturer was a "car" company). Big Scary ideas like "We Do Chicken Right" ( KFC finally equating fried chicken with "Soul Food) Big Scary Ideas that had enough cajones to be remembered, not years later, but decades later. Here is the basic problem. Phil Dusenberry got Ronald Regan elected. Dave Lubars did some cool commercials. Helmut Krone ("We Try Harder") sold the VW beetle to tail-fin obsessed America in the 1960's. David Droga did some cool commercials. Gerry Della Femina ("Joe Isuzu") made "Made in Japan" mean something besides cheap for Panasonic. Carolyn Jones ("We Do Chicken Right")was the first black woman to make a million bucks in advertising and have her minority campaign cross over to the general market. Chris Jones had a cool puff piece in Wired. The point I'm trying to make is that in order to have Corporate America buy your Big Scary Idea, you have to stand for something besides "cool." The great Bill Bernbach said it best. "Advertising is fundamentally persuasion, and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art." And we all know what kind of artists are left on Madison Avenue today.
Stay tuned,
|
|---|
WEDNESDAY ABOUT ME MOST READ MAD009 MAD023 MAD025 MAD072 MAD006 MAD059 MAD060 MAD066 MAD095 MAD015 MAD026 MAD030 MAD021 MAD071 MAD092 MAD100 LINKS WE LIKE POWER BLOGS RECENT MAD 178 MAD 177 MAD 176 MAD 171 MAD 167 MAD 160 MAD 159 MAD 158 MAD 156 MAD 155 MAD153 MAD150 MAD149 MAD148 MAD147 MAD146 MAD145 MAD144 MAD143 MAD142 MAD141 MAD140 MAD139 MAD138
|
|---|
 |
|
|---|---|
|
|
|---|