One commercial that falls into the last category – is for Kay Jewellers.  If you haven’t seen it, please allow me a moment to set the scene for you:

We open on a cabin in the woods at night. There is a storm in the air. As we see inside the cabin, two lovers on a romantic retreat, look out the window at the rain.  The man half of the couple expounds: “In all the years we’ve been coming here, I’ve never seen a storm like this.”

As a thunderclap rings out through the air, the woman, frightened, instinctively buries her head in the chest of her manly companion as if she were a chihuahua. Laughing, the manly companion (who, I should mention here, looks as if he is planning to add her to his collection of decorative rugs made out of human flesh) says, in the most condescending tone ever committed to digital audio, “Don’t worry – I’m here. AND I ALWAYS WILL BE.” [emphasis mine.]

After the sales pitch ends, she looks him in the eye, and responds, “Don’t let go [dramatic pause]… ever.”

Also, there’s something about a necklace in there.

Now, I hate this commercial – this much is true. But my hatred is nothing compared to the seething vitriol it produces in my sweet and lovely girlfriend, which is why I have to think that either there was not a single woman in the room when this spot was conceived, or those women were too busy being scared by thunder to realize what a condescending piece of crap it is.

Commercial stereotypes are the laziest form of “creative” under the sun, and that goes for the bumbling dad who can’t cook dinner without burning it as much as it goes for the wilting flower of a fiancé who needs a big strong man to protect her from loud noises.

At this point, I think that this spot (and frankly, almost every other commercial they air regularly) has built up so much negativity, that if I ever presented my sweet and lovely girlfriend with a box from Kay’s, I’m afraid it would be thrown in my face.

Though in fairness, I wouldn’t be able to resist saying the line from the commercial, so I would probably have it coming.

On the left, Bell. On the right, its main competitor, Rogers. Demonstrating how much I actually pay attention to commercials, I had seen both of these campaigns, but every time I saw the slogan, I assumed that it was always associated with whatever commercial I was currently watching. It wasn’t until the other night when my girlfriend asked of the Bell commercial, “wait… isn’t that Roger’s slogan?”

If you’re going to share the joy, you might as well share slogans, too.

Apparently, the Scottish Tourism Board has just launched a new campaign to rebrand and re-invigorate Scotland to the rest of the world.  So, after six months, and about $250,000 they launched the fruits of their efforts:

Welcome to Scotland.

It’s catchy, right?  Makes you feel welcome, lets you know that you’re in Scotland.  What more could you ask for?

From the Daily Record:

The new artwork was unveiled at Glasgow airport yesterday by culture minister Linda Fabiani. She said: “These images will welcome people arriving in our country and Scots coming home, giving everyone a taste and glimpse of the very best of Scotland.

“This is not about developing flashy slogans.

“This is about showing what a modern, vibrant and successful country Scotland is.”

But Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “If ‘Welcome to Scotland’ is the best Alex Salmond’s government can come up with, it shows the SNP have had an imagination bypass. It sounds more like a road sign at Berwick than it does a must-do invitation to visit our country.”

Maybe they should have gotten the agency that developed the slogan for Biggar, Saskatchewan:

“New York is Big, but this is Biggar.”

If nothing else, this is the kind of slogan that should make Ottawans not feel so bad about the $200,000 “Technically Beautiful” fiasco from a few years back.

It seems that the hunky mascot for a certain lemon-scented floor cleaner has been moonlighting. In fact, he shows up in a supporting role in the adult feature American Daydreams in a scene with contemporary actress Brooke Banner. In the scene, Banner, the engenue of the piece, falls asleep after being tasked with cleaning the kitchen, and is paid a visit – a sexy visit – by Mr. Clean himself.

We all know that television advertising is declining, but this is a sad wakeup call for the ad world. The classic spots between soap operas made Mr. Clean, but fewer television spots means less residuals for this iconic actor. Forever typecast as a buff, attractive, yet hetro cleaning companion, attempts to pick up even character work elsewhere would be futile. With no reliable income to fund his gold earring, head wax and meth habits, a man who once had the respect of millions of housewives is now reduced to working in the sex trade. If something isn’t done, it’s only a matter of time before the Pillsbury Doughboy ends up blowing guys in a phone booth for struedel.

The lesson here for marketers: sure, your brand is strong – but are people fucking it on camera? I thought not.

[via Advertising Lab]

That said, the early evangelists of these changes, those who trumpet in the era of the blogger, the era of engagement, or the era of whatever change is around the corner can sometimes lose sight of is the fact that these new media are shaping the future, but that doesn’t mean they’re erasing the past.

I’m very much among those early evangelists in both public relations and advertising.  I firmly believe that social media will play a very significant role in the future of PR, and that brands who understand that they need to move away from passively pelting consumers with ads and start getting them actively engaged will benefit the most.  However, reading an article in PRWeek this morning [subs. req.] got me thinking about the fact that as much as we (and I) trash it, traditional advertising and PR efforts still work.

In the article, Julia Hood tells the story of buying Bose headphones based largely on the ad campaign.  This causes her to raise an interesting point:

This led me to something that has been percolating. Is it possible that we all engage in overkill in promoting the impact and influence of user-generated media at the expense of other marketing platforms? At the risk of not having this link picked up by our beloved PR blogger audience, I think we might be.

Radio was displaced by television, theatre was displaced by film, painting was displaced by photography.  Still, these media are not dead – they’re still valid forms of communication and art.  As much as we PR bloggers like to announce that things are dead (how morbid!) many of these things will never die. 

I still use press releases.  I use them differently than I did five years ago, but I still use them.  Likewise, I still pitch major daily newspapers, television reporters and other “old media.”  There’s no denying that the way we’re consuming our media is changing, but we can’t be too quick to throw out the baby with the bathwater, if I may dust off an old chestnut.

The lesson that we can all learn is not about what media we should use or not use, but fundamentally how we should communicate with our publics.  What if we took a lesson from blogging and started treating all of our publics like real people?  

I haven’t seen the ad that caused Julia to buy bose earphones, but I bet that it’s informative, friendly and believable, and not dependent on “Get your Fash’on” style meaningless slogans.  That ad probable spoke to a key insight, probably as she listened to music and crowd noise on the subway, and delivered her informative, to the point content and a way to solve her problems.

Usually, advertising isn’t ineffective because it’s advertising.  Usually, advertising is ineffective because it sucks.  Learn lessons from the new media, and apply it to the old, and you’ll get the best of both worlds.