Ads that miss the mark

I think everyone knows the Old Spice 'the man your man could smell like' commercial. It was one of the most effective marketing campaigns for an established product and tripled sales by about 300% while successfully repositioning the brand from an 'old man's' product to something a new generation would want to use.



As with most successful things, there have been a lot of imitators, some successful, some not so much.

An example of an ad campaign that tries to have the same field as the Old Spice ad is Dairy Queen. They have created a whole campaign around the idea that 'good isn't good enough' which might work if the focus was on the food but instead, we get commercials like this:



I don't know about you, but this ad doesn't make me want to buy what they're selling.

The reasons the Old Spice ads worked was because it hit on the reason why men wear cologne while also successfully targeting potential female consumers who might purchase the product for their boyfriends/husbands/etc. while being amusing.

As well, the humour aspect made it an instant viral hit giving it double the impact as it had a strong online presence as well.

The Dairy Queen commercial ... I don't even know who this would be appealing too. It's not selling the product, not really, and as such it fails on a whole even if someone finds it amusing it hasn't gone viral.

In my opinion it misses the mark.

What do you guys think?

'Your Man' Reminder App

Need a reminder to check yourself for breast cancer? There’s an app for that. And instead of a static calendar or alert you have the option of picking one of six men to remind you to give yourself a breast exam. 


Everyone knows sex sells.  Clothes, perfumes, even burgers as we’ve seen over the past few years, but using sex to inform and sell a health cause? That’s new. 


And I’m not talking about the ‘you have sex, you die’ use of it either, here’s a Public Service Announcement (PSA) from Rethinking Breast Answer that show cases this interesting use of sex appeal to get, and keep, the attention of their target market while getting across pertinent information:



Now, in some of the youtube comments people pointed out that it objectifies men and its’ reverse sexism' but I’ll be honest, I found it amusing. It’s entertaining, educational (got across the major points on checking yourself out with their TLC bit) and effective (I watched the whole thing and I won’t lie, I normally zone out on PSA) and since I learned about it through facebook it has great potential for going viral if it hasn’t already.


Add in the fact that it also has a mobile aspect, it’s already hit on two of the biggest ways to get your message out to a public that is inundated with messages about breast cancer. Online and through the use of cellphones. 

As well, advertising online using this as the basis for the campaign could be a lot of fun and could mimick aspects of the actual app using a real media ad so you can experience it without actually downloading it and I think there would be quite a few click throughs to the actual website.


This sex sells cancer awareness isn’t just aimed at females either.


Here’s an ad aimed at men to check themselves out for testicular cancer. This one is more sex driven (and  has been tagged 18+ on youtube and is kinda NSFW so click with caution) then the previous one and isn’t as up front about the purpose behind the ad but I think it does your grab your attention and is amusing:





Again, it’s entertaining, informational and it gets the point across.

It uses sex appeal and shock factor to keep you watching and let’s face facts here, underwear model plus an accent equals their target audience paying attention, but how effective is it?

I’m pretty sure I won’t be seeing that Rhian ad on television over here and I haven't seen any mobile or online aspects to spread it. Is there any point in creating an ad if it’s not likely to get seen? 


As well both of these ads, Rhian more so then Your Man App, have the potential to cause controversy and might cause attention that is more harmful then helpful.

 
What do you guys think?

PSA (Public Service Announcement) - An ad intended to raise awareness of an issue and potentially lead to action.