Remember ages ago I wrote about an Australian tampon product called ‘U’?
They were the ones who claimed that using a beaver in their ad campaign wasn’t some cheap look-at-me stunt, but a strategically driven creative angle because <strong>“Young women were more comfortable in talking about the issues when euphemisms were made.”
Well putting aside the fact a beaver isn’t a euphemism but a rather old visual pun, the agency/client have proved they were talking a load of ol’ bollocks because this is their new ad …
Where’s the euphemism gone?
How is this going to make young women feel more comfortable talking about periods and tampons?
Why does it look like a cross between a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and Diet Coke ad?
As I/we suspected, there was no goal to help women feel more comfortable talking about periods … there was no desire to be seen as the brand that could help women feel better and more confident about themselves … there was no plan to kill the ‘period’ taboo … from the start it was a cheap, tacky marketing stunt done in a desperate attempt to gain attention and make the agency look cutting edge.
Well they did get attention – but like the SIA stuff, not necessarily positive attention – and the agency did get a name, but as a bunch of self-serving cocks who still end up looking about as creative as a sheep with a crayon.
I want to kill the people behind this campaign – I genuinely do want to kill.
Believe it or not, I wanted the words of my post shoved back down my throat … proved I was wrong … shown that this was part of a bigger vision … a vision they were going to make happen and build value, interest and importance with … but no, I wasn’t, I was shown that too many people in marketing and advertising look for ‘shock tactics’ without any understanding that to really make that strategy work, you have to back it up, build it up and make the whole fucking thing interesting and engaging.
Judging by the fact I’ve written a post pretty much every day for the last week – it would seem I’m back. How the hell did that happen?