Manifesto ads do my head in.
There are times when there is a role for them – or at least, a role for a good one – but the reality is they should embody what a brand is doing in their product, service and behaviour rather than be a replacement for it.
Anyway, the reason I’m saying this is that I’ve just seen one that has scraped new depths of the shitty barrel.
It’s not just because it’s an endless stream of every airline ad cliche for the past 20 years … nor is it because it features a script that is so awful it makes – as I mentioned in the title of this post – that Gerrard Butler bollocks for Hugo Boss sound like Shakespeare …. it’s because the guy doing the voice over seems to think he’s doing the trailer for this centuries biggest movie release when really what he’s doing is voicing 2015’s biggest turkey.
Wanna see how bad it is?
Cop a load of this …
Now before anyone says I’m being a bastard because Vietnam is a developing country and I should take that into account when evaluating work.
1. I’d say you’re the one being patronising and prejudiced about the Vietnamese people.
2. The fact is there’s been a bunch of interesting work to have come out of Vietnam in the past few years.
3. This is supposed to be a ‘global spot’ … so it’s supposed to be enticing to all ‘global citizens’.
I genuinely feel sorry for Vietnam Airlines because not only are they a good airline, but they deserve – and I’d argue, need – better than this.
Of course when it comes to who to blame, there’s so many possible contenders.
The marketing director at Vietnam Airlines for lacking ambition.
The focus groups for promoting lowest-common-denominator parity.
The agency [JWT] for taking the money for making this tosh.
While there is an argument that by appearing ‘the same’ as the major players, you get considered in the same group as the major players … the reality is that’s highly unlikely, not unless you’re traveling to Vietnam or come from Vietnam.
If not, then I’d say that to convince someone who doesn’t know Vietnam Airlines to choose Vietnam Airlines over a well known airline will be very hard unless the ticket prices are dramatically cheaper, and then that might make them wonder if the price of the ticket reflects the quality of the aircraft and/or its maintenance.
Whoever is to blame, whatever the reasons, the fact is the end product does a massive disservice to Vietnam Airlines and I would suggest they listen to the advice I was told by a certain gentleman at Virgin Atlantic who sometimes comments on here.
“The moment you decide to play in the big league, you have to plan to win because playing not to lose means you lose”.