About Us
I (and most people) have a love/hate relationship with advertising.
Yes, I enjoy each new Absolut vodka print ad: Where will they hide
the famous bottle? And I enjoy the humor in British ads, and the
risqué quality of French ads. Even some advertising jingles and
melodies stick in my mind. But I don’t enjoy most ads. In fact, I actively
ignore them. They interrupt my thought processes. Some do
worse: They irritate me.
not enough. Advertising must be more than an art form. But the art
helps. William Bernbach, former head of Doyle, Dane & Bernbach,
observed: “The facts are not enough. . . . Don’t forget that
Shakespeare used some pretty hackneyed plots, yet his message
came through with great execution.”
Even a great ad execution must be renewed or it will become
outdated. Coca-Cola cannot continue forever with a catchphrase like
“The Real Thing,” “Coke Is It,” or “I’d Like to Teach the World to
Sing.” Advertising wear-out is a reality.
Advertising leaders differ on how to create an effective ad campaign.
Rosser Reeves of the Ted Bates & Company advertising
agency favored linking the brand directly to a single benefit, as in “R-O-L-A-I-D-S spells RELIEF.” Leo Burnett preferred to create a
character that expressed the product’s benefits or personality: the
Green Giant, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Marlboro cowboy, and
several other mythical personalities. The Doyle, Dane & Bernbach
agency favored developing a narrative story with episodes centered
on a problem and its outcome: thus a Federal Express ad shows a
person worried about receiving something at the promised time
who is then reassured by using FedEx’s tracking system.
The aim of advertising is not to state the facts about a product
but to sell a solution or a dream. Address your advertising to the customers’
aspirations. This is what Ferrari, Tiffany, Gucci, and Ferragamo
do. A Ferrari automobile delivers on three dreams: social
recognition, freedom, and heroism. Remember Revlon founder
Charles Revson’s remark: “In our factory, we make lipstick. In our
advertising, we sell hope.”3
But the promise of dreams only makes people suspicious of advertising.
They don’t believe that their selection of a particular car or
perfume will make them any more attractive or interesting. Stephen
Leacock, humorist and educator, took a cynical view of advertising:
“Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human
intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
Ads primarily create product awareness, sometimes product
knowledge, less often product preference, and more rarely, product
purchase. That’s why advertising cannot do the job alone. Sales promotion
may be needed to trigger purchase. A salesperson might be
needed to elaborate on the benefits and close the sale.
What’s worse, many ads are not particularly creative. Most are
not memorable. Take auto ads. The typical one shows a new car racing
100 miles an hour around mountain bends. But we don’t have
mountains in Chicago. And 60 miles an hour is the speed limit. And
furthermore I can’t remember which car the ad featured. Conclusion:
Most ads are a waste of the companies’ money and my time.