Creating Advertising That Offends Your Customers: I Don't Get It

I was shocked this week to see an ad by Ford for their Mustang. It shows a father and son in a dark parking lot. The son's driving, he peels out, runs a bit, then stops. The father turns to him and says "That's what I'm talking about. This is not a toy! Want to go again?" Both laughs and they peel out again.

Now I'm sure this ad strikes deep to the heart of a few fathers who want their sons to relive the father's teenage streetrodding experiences. And, when they dragged those fathers into focus groups the ad was probably met with applause.

But what's clear is that they didn't test the ad with others - the moms, the families who have lost a child to being hit by a teenage driver, MADD members, and those who look for our teenagers to be law-abiding. To them, this ad is not only offensive, but it constitutes "fighten words".

The ad has already been pulled in at least one market where recent highly-publicized teen accidents have raised awareness of the dangers of telling kids that it's ok to drive cars recklessly "as long as they don't get caught."

Want to judge the spot for yourself? Watch it here. It's the one with the grinning man's face.

This ad is just another in a recent trend towards offending one market segment while seeking to attract another. Carls Junior's Paris Hilton ad was one we recently commented on.

Sephora has recently done the same thing with coffee cups with a lipstick mark on the rim, making them appear to have been used.

Frankly, I don't get it.

This alls back to the ongoing disconnect we have in the marketing world, that the people who make the ads are not held to the same standard nor rewarded the same way those who pay for the ads.

Marketers get paid for delivering profits. Advertisers get paid for running ads. And what's worse, every time the marketers try to put some teeth or rewards based on profits into the advertising payment system, the ad world fights it tooth and nail.

Why? Because deep inside, most traditional agencies know that if their advertising was truly held responsible for delivering profits, they would actually have to produce totally different commercials than the ones they do right now.

Commercials that would contain stuff they consider boring, like competitive demos, direct response mechnisms, and heaven forbid, actual consumer benefits. Stuff that sales rather than wins awards.

No, it's far more fun to create worthless ads that "brand", "get recall", or "create buzz".

The problem is that most breakthrough, recall and buzz-generating ads don't brand at all, in fact people can't even remember what brand ran the spot. So they may be talking about the ad around the watercooler the next day; but since nobody can remember what brand ran the ad, it's an ad that sells the category, not the brand.

Another situation happens when people seek to gain extra attention for their ad by purposely creating a publicity-seeking element in the ad. Unfortunately, since most advertising isn't news, they have to insert some element that's way outside of norm, creating controversy, resulting in news.

Let's take the Ford ad for example. Yes, they'll get news, but the news will be that x group objects to the ad because it teaches kids that it's ok to handle this car in a dangerous way. The ad may get free exposure on the nightly news, but what's the key message the consumer will receive? "This car is dangerous for teens to drive."

Now, I can think of lots of messages I'd rather have in my potential consumers' minds than "this car is dangerous."

So, the next time an agency comes to you with a campaign that they claim is going to generate lots of publicity as a bonus, consider carefully the labels that campaign will attach to your prized asset, your brand.

In most cases, it's not worth it!

Want to know more about how to create incredible advertising that delivers profitable results? Check out Reason-Why Advertising and How Shall We Know Good Copy?

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Tags: advertising ford mustang tv commercials