Sunday, December 20, 2009

hey, hipster creatives, the world is uglier than you may think

One of the things I appreciate most about a beach vacation (hello, Puerto Rico) is the opportunity to catch up on hand-held reading. So many magazines, so much down time. Which brings me to NyQuil ads saturating the print waves. Tagline: "For a Better Looking Tomorrow". Wha? Took me a re-read to get this concept: colds make you look really, really ugly but now there's an overnight remedy that gets you back to your old (beautiful) self. Trouble is, what's shown to be "ugly" is how lots of people look every day if they're not in advertising or in Santa Monica. (Other shots in the series can be seen here.) Hey, 20-something urban creative hotties: look up from your email next time you're on the subway. Sheesh. No wonder ad agencies have a reputation for being insular.

And, speaking of standards set by undue emphasis on attractiveness--how come there's a hyphen between "better" and "looking"? Because the art director thought it looked prettier that way?



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to call it out. The Hyphen Patrol will surely catch this. And, I don't need to be reminded how I look when I'm sick. I didn't like this approach. Show me the promise of the product.

Mrktng said...

Sorry to say it looks like he is in a coffin. I witnessed a tasteless stunt of "coffin advertising" on the sidewalk near FIT. Attention grabber? I'd say not. Neither is this ad.

Mrktng said...

Sorry to say it looks like he is in a coffin. I witnessed a tasteless stunt of "coffin advertising" on the sidewalk near FIT. Attention grabber? I'd say not. Neither is this ad.

david benardo said...

omg these are all over the ATL and LAX airports… BIG snuffle heads 10 times normal size… uug. No one likes Nyquil but we al know it works overnight - Do some not know that yet? Geeze letem ask a friend, and spare us the ugly ad camPAIN.

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Forgive the response lag. Holiday Head.

@AdChick-The hyphen patrol. Love that.

@Mrktng-Agreed. Imagines of coffins tend to deflect buying enthusiasm. Unless, of course, sadly, you're in the market for one.

@David Bernardo-All over NYC airports too. Perhaps marketing strategy similar to old Mr. Whipple. Run the hell out of an offensive campaign. Worked for TP, I guess. But not sure product registers strongly enough in these ads to make them as annoyingly effective.