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Creativity overdose in advertising

Filed under: People and society by Hari
Posted on Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 09:06 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 21:16 IST)

I have to seriously question the role of advertising in today's media - particularly television. There is an overdose of creativity and smartness that just annoys and repels common people away from the products that these ads serve up.

I think that advertisers need to take a serious look at their own creativity and ask themselves this question: "Am I going to sell a product by using this particular advertisement?" If they answer that question honestly, a majority would understand that what they're doing by way of advertising is simply to serve up flashy, pretty picture-perfect images and sometimes going overboard with creativity. They tend to forget that their role is simply to sell a product and not entertain people watching television. Sure, an advertisement needs to attract eyeballs, but there can be too much of a good thing and pretty soon the impact of a particular advertisement can fall dramatically in the minds of prospective customers. Worse, the advertisement can actually start acting as a negative influence turning away and repelling even existing customers.

The biggest risk that advertisers take is in taking an aggressive approach. Particularly when it comes to demeaning its competition or its target audience. This is completely needless to sell products that would otherwise sell without any substantial advertising. Take the case of a motorbike ad that came out recently on Indian televisions. I'm taking about the TVS Apache ad which takes on a brash approach of belittling middle-aged and elderly people. The tag-line is: "It's now or never." Now it's so obvious that their target audience is youth - particularly college going kids in the teenage bracket with a carefree, happy-go-lucky life. But without realizing that the persons who're going to shell out the money for their customers are probably the parents, uncles or elder brothers (since financial independence is relatively rare among college going teens in India) the ad simply demeans them by making them look ridiculous and "uncool." Although the marketers of this bike have targetted a minority, they don't realize that the majority of bike customers in India are probably the middle-aged, office going types in the 30-55 year old age group - totally unglamourous people who work hard and live typical middle-class lives. By convincing themselves that their target audience are are free, brash, confident teenagers, they do themselves an injustice and negate their own message. I know all about "market segmentation" but sometimes advertisers get too smart for their own good in identifying target markets where there aren't any. The "cool, teenage college kids who own bikes and go around town with their girlfriends in the pillion" are a relatively rare group in India, even urban India. It's a media creation and a myth. The majority of students are responsible citizens who would find the portrayal of youth in these ads quite repulsive themselves.

There are definitely a lot more examples of this kind in the current generation of advertising. I think the issue definitely is one of perception. The media created the myth and they are now caught up in their own myth while the real world is completely different from their images. Spending crores of rupees on advertising, the agencies probably convince themselves that creativity is the way to reach out to an audience and stay in their minds. Armchair creativity probably rules the roost, while it's necessary to pull the hard yards and go into the market and analyse the minds of target customers. Sometimes, to sell a product, you simply need to place the product in the right markets. I don't think a majority of products being sold today are influenced to any substantial extent by advertising in the media. A lot of goods are bought and sold by unglamourous people living ordinary lives. Many people make choices based on a lot of factors like availability, the opinions of their friends and relatives, the recommendations of shopkeepers and salesmen, the brand image and reputation and so on. Brands aren't built by advertising. Rather, advertising reinforces an already existing brand image. People aren't going to change brands because famous actor X appeared on a commercial and said so while dancing to the tunes of a popular movie song. What a waste of so many crores when the message itself is so ineffective! But this is exactly what so many companies are doing - wasting an enormous amount of money in needless, superfluous advertising.

The key then to good advertising, is not in being creative or being funny, but to put across a simple, effective message in a convincing fashion. A good advertisement cannot always be flashy, funny or glamourous. It's as important to know what not to say in your communication as it is to know what to say. And above all, a good advertisement shouldn't irritate the audience, alienate potential customer groups in the name of "segmentation" or demean its competition. Take the case of the soft drink Sprite ads. Almost every Sprite ad is a reaction to its competitor in a manner which pokes fun and demeans the other side. While such a strategy might amuse and entertain the audience for a while, it doesn't actually sell anything other than a negative image. In the long term, the negative brand image sticks in the minds of the customers. And that can do the product a lot more harm than no advertising at all.

Ultimately a good advertisement helps in enhancing a brand, a product or a company's image in the minds of people. Every single idea, word or image served up by the advertisement should go towards that effort rather than being funny, ridiculous or derogatory for the sake of being creative or entertaining. If most advertisers realized this, television viewers would heave a big sigh of relief and TV channels would probably see a drastic fall in ad revenues.

5 comment(s)

  1. Advertisers look around and see where the market is. If there is no demand, they have to create that demand. They are telling the youth of India that they should be riding around on motorbikes and if they aren't then they're not "in". Soon, people with the money (or the will to go into debt) will be riding around.There is also what is known as "pester power" - these young people will start complaining to their parents that they don't have a motorbike and that they need one. The parents will eventually cave in and thus the market will build.We're relatively lucky in the UK - our advertisers aren't allowed to directly compare their products. So you can't have "brand X is 10 times better than brand Y", they have to say "brand X is 10 times better than the leading competitor" without naming the competitor.It has been a long long time since I allowed advertising to dictate what I buy and I'm in no hurry to change that.

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Mon, Apr 17, 2006 @ 14:50 IST #
  2. Ray,even here in India, advertisers aren't technically allowed to compare brands. But they get around such restrictions with ridiculous ease merely by altering the competitor's logo in such a way that even though they don't display the brand, it's very obvious to the audience who they're comparing themselves to.Similarly advertising liquor is prohibited here, but they manage to get around it by using the liquor brand name (which is famous in any case) and then using that to advertise "bottled water", "soda" or "cola".The so-called ethics of the advertising profession leave me cold.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Mon, Apr 17, 2006 @ 21:21 IST #
  3. As the "Dilbert" comic once put it: Marketing segmentation is the key = Don't improve the product, just find dumber customers;)

    Comment by Dominic (visitor) on Mon, Apr 17, 2006 @ 21:25 IST #
  4. That's so true, Dominic. The problem with the segmentation approach of course is that sometimes it can be too segmented and you lose a majority of customers who would otherwise have bought your product.Yeah, sometimes this new culture being promoted by advertising and the media seems to be a concerted effort to "dumb down" audiences rather than to educate them meaningfully on the choices available to them. Ironically this is a phenomenon that can be attributed to "globalization" and the opening up of markets.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Mon, Apr 17, 2006 @ 21:37 IST #
  5. left a comment on the learning *nux beyond linux post. :) lemme know what you think :)

    Comment by glam (visitor) on Wed, Apr 19, 2006 @ 17:18 IST #

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