Look at that ad.
Look at it.
Isn’t it marvellous?
Simple. Clear. Charming. Engaging.
Sells the product feature through a human benefit.
A simple story that works for kids and parents alike.
The photo and the headline do all the heavy lifting, namely because the photo isn’t a stock image and the headline isn’t a piece of generic twaddle. And yet it’s not like it has high production values, it is just a good piece of advertising.
It’s also from a bygone age.
Not just because this ad ran years ago, but because advertising has become about selling features rather than benefits.
Explaining rather than communicating.
Describing rather than imagining.
Telling rather than inspiring.
It’s not advertising … it’s a product brochure designed to please the board of directors rather than actual human beings.
Despite my music and clothes taste, I hate looking backwards … but maybe the industry needs to do that. Not because we should aim to replicate what has gone before, but because we seem to need to remember it was stories, ideas, creativity and craft that once made us so valuable, not being able to churn out cultural landfill at the lowest price per execution.