Filed under: Comment
Yes … yes … I’m a baldie so what the fuck would I know about lovely locks!
Well you could say ‘absolutely nothing’ however in my defense, I’d say …
[1] I’ve not been bald all my life
[2] I spent many painful years working on a number of female shampoo brands.
OK, you’re right, I know nothing.
Anyway, I was walking near my home earlier this week when I saw this …
… now I appreciate that there are many styles of haircut in the World, but does anyone else think it’s a bit weird to have a great big fucking billboard showing you can’t cut in a straight line?
OK … OK … I’m coming across as literal client [or pedantic Dodds] but does anyone else find this strange, even in a teensy, little bit?
You bastards.
By the way, I recently heard the wankiest job title ever and it was to do with hairdressing.
Yes, even wankier than ‘hair consultant’ … are you ready for it?
Hair Architect.
I wish I was joking but I’m not.
The best bit [at least for me] was that I managed to stifle my laugh so that when they asked what I did, I could answer ‘Brand Pediatrician’ with a straight face.
[They didn’t bat an eyelid!!!]
On the plus side, the most senior person for haircare at – I think – Unilever has the title ‘Head of Hair’ which is at least amusing but it begs the question, are job titles becoming the new version of red sports cars for middle aged delusionists?
Filed under: Comment
So a while back, I wrote a counter argument to the topic “Is Google Making Us Stupid“.
Even though 18 months or so have passed, I still think society is too quick to blame others for their own shortcomings rather than look in the mirror and see their own inadequacies … especially given Google simply compiles information from out in the blogosphere whereas other media outlets – ie: newspapers – supposedly focus on identifying, filtering and publicising detailed and accurate information.
Have a look at this headline from the Daily Mail …
Seriously, how crap is that?
‘MASSIVE 235FT ROCKET CARRYING A SECRET SPY SATELLITE’
Even the thickest village idiot can work out it’s probably not very secret if the fucking UK Daily Mail knows about it … but that didn’t stop them trying to make some big ‘EXCLUSIVE’ out of a story that just wasn’t there.
The good news is that in the articles comments, there was a diatribe of sarcasm showing people aren’t as gullible as many like to believe … and that’s good news, because in our bid to stop clients pushing ‘Mr Bean’ style communication, we can point out that not only do they want to be treated with intelligence, but if you do, they’ll be more likely to pay more money for the brand because let’s face it, even if you understand what Mr Bean is trying to say, you’re unlikely to think anything he has is worth paying a lot of money for.
Too many brands try to dumb down because they think that will maximise relevance – but having lots of people know about you doesn’t mean you’ll get lots of people buying you, far from it infact – which is why I believe if you want to stand a chance of increasing both brand value and price point, you’d be much better off focusing on trying to dumb up, if only for the fact that alone will immediately differentiate you from 99% of the competition.
Filed under: Comment
So there’s this video going around that has captured China’s attention.
Because I can’t figure out how to embed it in WordPress, before we go any further, I need you to click here.
Mad eh?
Actually that’s a bit of an understatement isn’t it.
Apart from the “lyrics” being both mental and yet relatively simple to understand [the song title translates literally to ‘Perturbed’] … the fact the singer performs like an exaggerated Freddie Mercury adds to the weirdness of the whole thing.
Anyway, since it came out, Chinese websites have been literally filled with countless brilliant spoof versions but given the cultures obsession with never wanting to publically look foolish to the wider society, I wonder if it’s adoption has been influenced by the fact the original piece being so fucked up, that regardless how extreme someone tries to be with their alternative, they can never look as mad as the original.
To be honest, I have no idea – and I certainly don’t want to give the impression Chinese people don’t have a sense of humour, because they do and it’s a brilliant one – but I do find it fascinating that the clips that seemingly get spoofed the most in China, tend to be the ones where regardless what someone does, it is almost impossible to out–weird the original.
Even if there’s a modicum of truth to that, the implications for Chinese adland are very interesting because so much of the ad humour is based on lowest-common-denominator slapstick and what this would mean you could really start pushing some boundaries, which would be good for the audience, and certainly the industry.
Would be very happy to hear people’s comments, even the ones whose closest dalliance with China is a sweet & sour pork on a Friday night.
Filed under: Comment
One of the things I’ve always loved is making counter-arguments to people’s claims.
I don’t do it to be a shit, but because I hate how people in adland generalise so much.
Of course I appreciate we’re in the ‘numbers game’ so we tend to focus on insights/observations/situations that relate to the largest number of people as possible, however by doing that, we often ignore other issues/needs/values that have the potential to either change our view or drive more interesting work for huge proportions of the population.
The thing is, as much as we like to ‘package people’ into certain groups, the reality is we’re all different and we all have our little quirks – be them public, professional or private – and I suppose I get a bit annoyed when the things that really engage, intrigue and motivate people are ignored in favour of blandom, simply because that’s easier or more convenient to build/sell your argument on.
Yeah – I know – it’s not always easy to do this, but the subculture of society is everywhere and I guess I just wish our industry embraced it a bit more rather than either passing over it or tending to focus purely on the latest and greatest ‘yoof’ trends.
OK, I’m rambling – I know what I’m trying to say but I also know I am not saying it – but I guess the reason for this post is this:
Yep, it’s those weird dolls that have been advertised all around the World for as long as I can remember.
On a personal note, I’d rather pour acid all over my nether regions rather than own one of these – but the fact is, someone must be buying them because the company, Ashton Drake Galleries, has outlived companies that were globally labelled as ‘superstars’.
I have to say, the ‘Kate Middleton’ doll is especially disturbing … I don’t know why, given they make baby dolls which in reality are far freakier … but the way they describe her in minute detail gives me the chills, it’s as if they’re professional stalkers.
Anyway, despite being 40 years on this earth, I’ve never met someone who either owns one of these things or even likes one of these things – same with those fucking weird plates that also get flogged in the back of Sunday Newspaper magazines – and yet, as I said, someone must be buying them or they’d not be churning out topical shit like this in their droves.
The problem with adland is that too often, if they haven’t done it, they don’t believe it exists … which is why I will always grudgingly respect Andy for the time he asked a particularly dismissive and blinkered client if he’d ever used a prostitute.
Unsurprisingly the client went off and said no, to which Andy replied …
“That’s funny, because I’ve never met someone who has said they had and yet it’s the oldest industry alive”.
I guess what he was saying – albeit in the most offensive way possible – was that if we only take life on face value, we can miss out on uncovering things that could genuinely captivate people and that’s why a lot of research bothers me, because an industry developed to find out what’s really going on has seemingly got a number of practitioners who are only versed in repeating back what’s been said.
In a focus group.
Where the participants are promised money for talking.
Anyone else see the potential flaws with this picture?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive fan of research and sometimes you do end up finding out nothing has changed from what you already knew [which can also be incredibly valuable, especially if you have people that want to change things just for the sake of changing them] however one thing I think is always worth remembering when you are about to embark on a project – regardless how ‘established’ the audience insights are – is the old adage made famous by ancient female actress, Thora Hird …
“There’s nowt as queer as folk”.