Is your advertising a dog's breakfast?

One the curious conventions of the traditional advertising agency model of storytelling is the 'boom boom'/pull the rug out from under your feet gag. You know the kind of thing, indulge the creative team their fanatasy for 28 seconds, then make sure the client gets a big logo at the end.

This ad is a classic example. Or at least it was until I took the liberty of changing the ending. I'm guessing most people would have no idea what the product originally advertised was.

I love clever effects and direction as much as the next person but I do think that ads have a job to do. Here's a couple of pointers from a book I had gathering dust on a shelf Winning With the P&G 99
:

"Lessons for effective television advertising

Lesson 88 : Link the brand to the story of the commercial

Look for opportunities to link the brand to the commercial, so that the story of the commercial-and the benefit of the brand-will not be confused with any other brand.

Introducing the brand early in the comecial is one way to accomplish this objective. SHowing and repeating the name of the brand several times helps. Using the name in a unique way can help..." - I'm guessing you get the message?

"Lesson 87 : Show the package in the first eight seconds.

The brand should be registered in the viewer's mind before the benefits are presented. A review of recent thirty-second commercials for fifty-one P&G brands advertisied in the U.S. showed that seventy-five percent of the commercials identified the brands within eight seconds."

To be fair, P&G do sell packaged goods, and the anonymous brand in the commerical I crudely doctored don't. But the principle stands.

The original ad is here for the curious.

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