Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Confidence, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Embarrassing Moments, Great Ads In History, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Wieden+Kennedy
So I recently saw this ad in the tube.
To be fair, it caught my eye more than most tube ads but there’s something about it that just doesn’t feel right.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what it is.
Maybe it’s that they are advertising viagra on a transportation device that is long and hard?
OK, it’s not that.
Maybe it’s the fact they call it Viagra Connect?
It’s not that, but it doesn’t feel right either.
Oh I know, it’s the fact the company website is GetEddie.com
This bothers me for a bunch of reasons.
One of them is that asking a bloke called Eddie for erection help feels very, very dirty.
Alright, that might just be me, but it just feels very under the counter when the whole premise of the ad is that it’s not something to be shy or scared of.
But more than that, it’s the website that really makes me uncomfortable.
You see while I am sure GetEddie is meant to be a play on ‘Get Ready’, it also feels like it’s trying to imply ‘get head’, which just seems pathetic to the core.
However – and it’s a big however – I appreciate this view may say more about me than the people behind Eddie, because lets not forget the time I thought an Old Spice campaign we did at Wieden – called Smellcome to Manhood – was a play on words about teenage boys experiencing puberty, when in fant it was literally just a pun on the word ‘Welcome’.
The creative team avoided me like the plague after that, which is a shame, as it was one of my favorite Old Spice campaigns.
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I hope yesterday wasn’t too hard for you Rob.
As for this post, I don’t know what to say except you are a very unique individual.
Comment by Pete January 17, 2019 @ 6:24 amI presume unique is placed in quotation marks
Comment by George January 17, 2019 @ 7:48 ameven unique is too fucking good for campbell.
Comment by andy@cynic January 17, 2019 @ 12:36 pm“Unique” is classic English passive aggressiveness.
Comment by DH January 17, 2019 @ 3:20 pmYou all know I can read this don’t you?!
Comment by Rob January 17, 2019 @ 6:15 pmi fucking hope so. dont want my insults going to fucking waste.
Comment by andy@cynic January 17, 2019 @ 7:11 pmI am still trying to get past your smellcome misunderstanding. On one hand it makes sense. But on the other, it is a very Robert way of looking at the world.
Comment by George January 17, 2019 @ 7:50 amA protractor can’t measure the range of subjects you post about.
Comment by Bazza January 17, 2019 @ 9:14 ambut a gun could fix it.
Comment by andy@cynic January 17, 2019 @ 12:36 pmI thought planners did research and exhibited curiosity? Clearly not – because those traits might have led you to google eddie as slang and find the explanation.
That would have given you more reasons to criticise this ad, if indeed that’s what you’re doing. Complaining about how “it doesn’t feel right” maybe means you’re really wanting to get a refund from their cutomer service department.
Comment by John January 17, 2019 @ 10:59 amseems youre defending the cock hardeners a little too much doddsy.
Comment by andy@cynic January 17, 2019 @ 12:36 pmBrilliant insulting.
Comment by DH January 17, 2019 @ 3:20 pmnot hard to spot who will be the next #metoo prick in the frame.
Comment by andy@cynic January 17, 2019 @ 12:38 pmI wonder about you sometimes rob
Comment by Northern January 17, 2019 @ 7:17 pmI want to take you seriously but you make it very hard sometimes
Comment by Northern January 17, 2019 @ 7:24 pmSometimes?
Comment by Bazza January 17, 2019 @ 9:18 pmName one person who does.
Comment by Billy Whizz January 17, 2019 @ 10:23 pmEven by this blog’s standards, this is an unusual post and comments section…
Comment by Rob (Other one) January 18, 2019 @ 3:53 am[…] it’s not quite as bad as the Eddie viagra ad I wrote about a while back … but it’s […]
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