More Wasted Ad Dollars
I’m reading the Thursady, October 27th, 2005 edition of USA Today. It’s the only newspaper I read and I’m sure bad things would happen if I missed and edition.
I get to page 6A, which is in the main section and I come across a white page entirely devoid of everything except these words:
Dear Ketel One Drinker
If you like our advertising please
continue to buy our product.
If you don’t like our advertising
please continue to buy our product.
What the heck did you hope to gain with this ad ?
Why should I try your product ?
How do I benefit ?
How do you benefit ? You don’t ! The ad agency does ! Them and USA Today.
You didn’t ask for those that don’t consume to try it, so they won’t.
You really didn’t ask the reader to take any action that would benefit you in the slightest.
You wasted your money. Money that I could have spent on more golf clubs. Send it to me and at least I’ll get something from this post, which is probably a better ad than your stupid one. I’ll bet you get more new converts from this post than you will from a full page ad in the A section of USA today on a Thursday.
Please help these people. I’m sure some great ad people read this blog. Give the people some advice and help.
They deserve it after what the agency that did this did to them.
EDIT: Troy White, whose blog is part of the Duct Tape Marketing Blog Network makes some good points that are right in line with what I attempted to say.
You can read his post HERE.
And if you want to learn more about advertising, subscribe to his RSS feed.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s a good example of the problem with going for “edginess”. When you’re on the edge - you’re just as close to being OFF as you are ON.
I like the concept of a big white page with just writing (and the font used was pretty cool). They got my attention, which most ads don’t.
It’s just a shame that once they had my attention, they lost it just as fast.
Joi
You make a good point, Joi.
Most people who get near the edge…fall off.
The big white page wasn’t the problem for me, it was the lack of asking or telling the readers to do anything,
Sure, they ask current drinkers to do something. They asked them to continue doing what they were doing, which is exactly what they would have done without those ad dollars being wasted.
Really, how many people wake up everyday and say, ” I think I’ll switch drinks today ! ”
None. Nada. Zero.
So they wasted the dollars, because nobody that doesn’t drink it will be switched by that fool ad either.
I think most ads are weak. When I was the marketing guy for a law firm I heard of one law firm that had huge success in its ads with a bulldog. Suddenly about two dozen other firms had dogs and cats as their mascots.
My favorite was the firm that told their agency they were going way out on a limb and not going to copy all those who used dogs and cats!!! THEY were going to use a parrot.
It is hard to find real creativity.
FYI…Keep up the blogging, I like reading it.
Thom,
I really appreciate the fact that you came by, commented and like the blog.
You are a gentleman and a scholar and YOUR blog rocks !
[...] e. The magnificent minds at the agency that Ketel One pays have done it again. This time, as opposed to last time, they paid for a full page ad in the Thursday, December 15th edition of U [...]
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