Tuesday, March 17, 2009

United States of Britain?

If there's one thing that really pisses me of (and there isn't, there are far more than that) it's ads that are transferred from country to country with no real thought about whether it is appropriate.

Be it Gillette bringing Team America style bravado to shaving for 20 years, chupachups or Johnson and Johnson (among many others) with some hideous dubbing instead of re-shooting.

Microsoft are guilty of this with their new business aimed ads.

Nice ads, with a nice enough message; but somehow it just feels absolutely 100% American. At no point watching this do I feel like its aimed at this country. Method are a great company, but I don't know anyone outside adland who has heard of them. Quiksilver are better, but still too American for the average UK business owner. And I like to think I know a fair bit about them having written for them for several years prior to being in adland.

Sure you save on production, but why is saving £50k on production seen as a waste when not doing so wastes all however many hundreds of thousands you spend on media?



1 comment:

Robert said...

The bigger issue is why clients do this sort of thing ... because I think it's more than just saving money, I think it demonstrates many clients don't really value the power of advertising otherwise surely they'd ensure it was done to achieve the maximum effect.

So is it their fault or adlands its got to this?

Besides, in the last 10 years, products have sold brands more than ads ... the industry needs to take a long hard look at what we do/think/say because if we carry on being satisfied making 30" of film then we're facing the final curtain, at least interms of being able to truly demonstrate what we're capable of. Though some people don't care about that do they!