Why Does Advertising Suck?
by Brian Reich | 12 Aug 2008, 2:00am
Most of the advertising on television sucks.
Some ads make you laugh. Others make you think. And, every now and then, you’ll actually see an ad that (gasp!) makes you want to buy the product it is promoting. But really, if you think about it, most of the ads that appear on television aren’t worth the air time they consume.
This point has been reinforced for me while watching the first few days of Olympic programming.
- VISA’s ads are boring.
- I have seen two McDonald’s ads - neither impressed me. The McDonald’s happy meal commercial (featuring the kids who lose the soccer game but get happy meals as a consolation prize - which of course is really better) is too long, and drags — and the commercial about the new southern chicken sandwich actually makes me want to be sick.
- The Budweiser ads are formulaic (and in at least one case, where the thoroughbred wants to make the team, a repeat from the Superbowl)
- The Barack Obama campaign ad confuses me while the John McCain ad just makes me angry.
- The Exxon Mobil ads are thoughtful, but I’m not sure it makes me want to buy more gas (or even visit their website to find out more about their science programs)
- The AT&T commercials are annoying (and the model is getting tired)
- The Nike ads are beautiful, but make me anxious (too much!)
- And not a single one of the car ads makes me want to go out and buy a vehicle (and I am actually in the market right now).
The closest thing to a good commercial I have seen this week is the +8 ad that AIG is running - and all they did was take a video from YouTube showing a laughing baby and add a couple sentences of dialogue.
So my question is this - why produce such bad advertising? Is it really that difficult to produce advertising that doesn’t suck?
Look, I am not stupid - I know that a big reason that companies spend millions of dollars on advertising is so that I will recall their brands. And yes, me writing a blog post that uses specific commercials as examples when lamenting the poor state of advertising is evidence that the advertising is serving its purpose.
But just because I can recall the brand doesn’t mean that a poorly executed ad is doing its job. Does the advertising industry really think that the work they are producing is good - or do they not care because they get paid regardless? Do the media that cover the ad space really think they are doing us all a service by letting mediocre (or worse) ads get off without a scolding?
I would love nothing more than to write a post about the wonderful ads I have seen, the creative ideas that were shared, or a product that I really felt was worthy of my investment after seeing it on television. But I can’t.
So my hope instead is that someone will tell me why so many of the ads I see aren’t good, and what I am supposed to do about it.
TAGS
: Advertising From the Trenches
