Bleeding Hell

Is it irony that offices of the same agency made this ad too?

I don't like to criticise ads in an unconstructive way, because I know how hard it is to create good campaigns, and to get those good campaigns through the client.



But sometimes you see an ad that just has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and there is little you can do but wonder how in the name of all things creative that monstrosity ever got to air.

 May I introduce you to the Colgate Pro Gum Health ad. 30 seconds that single-handedly takes advertising back 30 years. Their recent ads have all been poor, but at least they were just simple, style free ads that showed you some product and information while interacting with what seemed like normal people.


This ad though, commits some unforgivable cardinal sins of advertising.

• Let's start with the 'real' people who couldn't look more like actors if they had their equity cards held up in front of their face.
• Dialogue that tries to sound natural but feels stiled, fake and irritating, while acted in a way that feels so incredibly posed that it makes you want to laugh.
• There's the 'focus group leader' who looks like he has been recruited based on his looks alone.
• Oh and not forgetting the absurdly comic 'ask your dentist' ending with mind-bogglingly silly photo. (I actually did burst out laughing the first time I saw it).
• Additionally, as mentioned by @AJ_ay_it the stylistic approach to branding of plastering everything in the logo COLGATE COLGATE COLGAAAAATTTTEEEE! , and that this researcher should be reported to the MRS for his selling..!

What decade are we living in?

This ad couldn't feel more dated if it was shot in black and white and fronted by someone who is dead. It talks to people in a way that seems to presume they have all the intelligence of a intellectually challenged loaf of bread. If you want people to understand the facts then just tell them in a compelling way, don't break out sales tactics that would be laughed at even by Alan Sugar.

I find it hard to believe that a creative agency could produce this, an ad completely devoid of any charm or creativity whatsoever. I don't know whether this is the fault of the agency or the client, but this kind of advertising will not engage or inspire anyone. Telling the facts can be a good strategy, but not like this. I spoke to someone at another agency who said it felt so negative that he was actually thinking about giving up using Colgate. I say this as someone who has been a loyal Colgate user for over a decade, their products are good, but talking about them in this way is just horrific.

It's not 1955 anymore Colgate.

You Are Only As Good As Your Client...

It's an old topic, but one I was asked to write about by a blog follower... so here goes!

You Are Only As Good As Your Client...

One of the key problems with advertising is that the reasons your brands hire marketing managers are not always the same as the reasons we would. Take that money vs creativity conflict that account folk have and ramp it up even more...

It doesn't matter who you are, be you Juan Cabral, Dave Trott, or Pete Smith the DM copywriter; if a client doesn't buy it, it doesn't get made. Good clients will get good work, bad clients will get bad.

Having great account people and planners can help you cheat this limitation. Using their knowledge of client business, customers, communications and the market; they can help sell in strategies, briefs and work that weaker staff could not. Most clients are more than good enough to get great work if you sell it correctly.

Sadly though, there are a small number of clients that just grind creativity to a halt. I have heard stories of all of these from various agencies and friends, though happily I have yet to experience them:

• You spend months in creative development working to an agreed brief, making amends and adjustments. It is finally ready, a perfect fit to the brief; and they decide to go with a safe dull sales heavy idea instead


• The client struggles to make any decisions, so nothing ever gets made


• You create a brilliant, groundbreaking new idea, and the client sits on it so long someone else gets there first


• You go to make a great ad, but the client insists on changing every line and every shot til all the original idea has gone


• Plus the good old - client refuses to have a brief with any hope of creativity

A good personal example of the twists in a client relationship for me was working on a TV and press campaign for a growing brand. The client would go through every detail with a microscope, justifying every word of copy and every mm of layout. It was difficult to sell in work, and a long long process to get the final work. But we were able to make really good work because he fundamentally understood creativity, branding, the use of white space, where to sell and where not to, etc. He turned out to be a very good client.

You only have to look at most great campaigns to see how having a good client is vital. Would a bad aftershave client have spent a big budget making videos to talk to people on twitter and you tube? Would a bad insurance client have bought a campaign about a rich mongoose breating your customers?

Then look at some bad campaigns from good agencies over the years. What are the odds that they did better but couldn't sell it in... A bad client is like a flat tire. It doesn't matter how big your engine is, how good your suspension, how beautiful the body work... you ain't going nowhere.

I guess the thing to remember is that like every industry, there are good people, and there are bad. We should take time to appreciate the good and try and help the bad!

So Very Totally True

"What you stand for in the 21st Century will be every bit as important as what you sell."

Simon Woodroffe (Yo Sushi / Dragons Den)

Getting Excited!

I am very much looking forward to the Future Marketing Summit, as it would normally be impossible for me to attend something with so many intelligent people talking about ads/marketing/design/etc.

I asked a little while ago for ideas as to what people think the Future Marketing Summit should be talking about, and here are (most of) the answers I got:

• "what people think about Big Ideas v a collection of little ones.
  
  
• Whatisface was on about this in Campaign, defending the Big Idea - but most of the examples he used were brands that have a long history, back into the old days of messaging."
  
  
• With such product parity, do people think Brand Advertising is MORE or LESS relevant in marketing today?
  
  
• Is the future of brand growth, product led?
  
  
• Will cause marketing become a core driver for brand differentiation/growth?
  
  
• Is brand activation a fad or is it here to stay?
  
  
• Why is creativity not so highly valued as media efficiency?
  
  
• Who are the future powerbrokers of business success? [ie: The retail trade now have the power over the Coca-Cola's of the World which is radically different from past times]
  
  
• Is communication about selling or leaving a positive impression on consumers?
  
  
• How much has innovation got to play in brand success?
  
  
• What is the real power of communicating on the net?
  
  
• Will the impact of copywriting on the public change the importance of creativity in an age where we need to keep doing more to interest people...?
  
  
• Why are their not enough bald men in advertising when there are so many shiny headed planners?

Thoughts..? (bear in mind these will probably be passed onto the organisers of the event)