We are that kid: the fat kid never picked for kickball; the kid with glasses and braces always pegged first in dodge ball; the one snubbed from the weekend parties because Mom still drives us on Friday nights.
But occasionally, and with some unknown brush with luck, those that normally ostracize us, invite us in. We are able to sneak in a joke or two that makes them laugh and for a brief moment we are their friend. We are invited into their homes, introduced to other friends, and deemed the popular kid at the party.
Ads that are not ads seem to be the current method for breaking out of the hated kid association. BBH’s “Tea Partay” and Taxi’s “Busted” lives through E-WOM. Along with masses of people, I’ve emailed out the links and logged on to YouTube to share the humor with friends. Not once has someone interrupted their laughter with a, “Wait a minute, was that an ad?”
So how do we learn that, how do we teach that, or did the advertising stars simply align for a short moment in time (similar to that of a Disney movie) and the results are a humorous spot, that’s not really a spot.
Enters - Chaos 2006: New Agendas in Advertising
We want to be liked, we want to be the popular kid, so we’re gonna talk about it. In a nutshell, some really important people leading the industry, some highly regarded members of The University of Texas faculty, and some advertising students are having a get together of sorts, some people call it a conference.
November 17th & 18th, you should come and maybe you’ll learn the secret to being the popular kid.
Friday, October 27, 2006
We are that Kid
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3 comments:
chaos conference aside (which sounds very interesting), i think the first move towards creativity in advertising is letting go of this stigma that all advertising people secretly want to be popular. it seems like only then can creatives stop pretending we have something to prove and start making interesting advertising.
The idea that advertising is "the fat kid never picked for kickball" is naive and fatuous at best, deceptive at worst. Advertising isn't that kid, advertising is a charismatic bully.
Advertising invades your personal space, talks at you, tries to tell you what to do and how to do it. Advertising is too often successful. And when it's not, advertising adapts.
"Ads that are not ads" -- c'mon, a rose by any other name, and all that. Virals, guerilla marketing, word of mouth: whether you overtly acknowledge the ad-ness or not, they're still ads, because if they weren't, you wouldn't get paid. Maybe nobody interrupted their laughter because the intent was obvious, but the execution was what sticks.
I love virals as much as the next internet-saavy schmuck, but it doesn't mean I don't understand what's going on. Guerrilla marketing impresses me far more than the mundane, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm still being told what to buy or think or do--and that I'm quite aware of it.
The more advertising disingenuously marries itself with the consumer consciousness, well, the more cynical consumers will become.
You want to rock the advertising boat? Don't just be popular. Instead, be honest and build trust. Try caring, instead of selling.
The notion that advertising and the people that make it are bad, misguided, not to be trusted capitalistic tools may be new to ryan -- simply "duh".
Looking at advertising as a cultural expression, and realizing that most of us are not so easily manipulated that we jump to the store and throw our credit cards on the table as soon we see an ad for athletic shoes -- is the basis of understanding human response to messaging and perhaps improving the practice of the business as well.
As a contemporary cohort a lot of us have lived thru one president saying he's not a crook, another maintaning that he did not have sex with that woman, a third insisting that wmd's were there and about to be used and that winning is losing -- makes it clear why viewers, listeners and readers tend not to believe advertising that boasts "no interest claims" from banks, the "every car must go" shouts from auto dealerships and that this new pill will make me sexier. Understanding this phenomenon and talking about it is the stuff of the Chaos Conference -- but hey, Ryan, please take my comments with a grain of salt -- I'm involved in the darn thing and may be biased.
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