Filed under: Crap Campaigns In History, Marketing, Marketing Fail | Tags: olympics
After last weeks accidental – and incredibly rare – occasion of writing a post at the optimum time for it to appear, I thought I should get back to being ‘topically late’ with my ranting.
Fortunately I did it without realising because as I was scanning through my pre-written posts, I found I’d written this one about the Olympics to appear after the Olympics.
Now that’s a talent. So with that brief intro over, here’s what I wrote …
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It’s the Olympics … a time where the world is reminded about the magnificence of sport.
It’s also a time where brands – both official and unofficial – jump on the bandwagon and claim they have an integral role either in athletics or the amplification of it.
Sadly, most fail.
Now this is not going to be a big rant about how Wieden does it better than most.
However what I will say is that the reason we have helped NIKE and P&G be at the forefront of Olympic advertising is because we haven’t actually approached it in terms of advertising, but in terms of truth.
The truth of what the brand stands for.
The truth of what the brand can genuinely claim it contributes to the Olympics.
The truth about what an athlete experiences or feels or goes through on their journey.
In other words, nothing fake, contrived or blatantly untrue.
Like paying money to be ‘the official cheese of the Olympics’ … or some other rubbish.
That’s why we helped P&G be the proud sponsor of Mum’s [sorry, Mom’s] … because their role in raising Olympian’s is true [and P&G has a real connection to them] whereas claiming an FMCG product had directly and significantly contributed to an athletes success, wasn’t.
[A case study of our last Olympic campaign – Greatness – can be seen here]
It’s not rocket science and yet, when I see ads like the one above – from an official Olympic sponsor no less – it appears that maybe it is.