In fact, make it a triple and maybe this ad will start to make some sense. It was bad enough back in January when I commented on the vapidity of this campaign. Now it’s become downright obnoxious.
Who in the world is this advertising talking to? People who presumably pride themselves in not being influenced by advertising despite the fact that they are at this very moment looking at an ad? People who couldn’t care less that some old duffer drinks the stuff, but will be thrilled to know he does?
Is this ad supposed to be funny?
If so, I think I’ll have another double while I wait for my sense of humor to return.
But this is no laughing matter. Because unlike many of the ads I write about, this ad isn’t ordinary; it’s extraordinarily bad. The Goth type and wanton squandering of space on the page do catch your eye, only to draw you into an exceedingly disappointing message. A message that actively makes me dislike the brand and highly suspicious of anyone associated with it.
Ordinary advertising is so innocuous it isn’t likely to do a brand much harm. (Unless you consider the complete waste of money spent to run it “harm”.) But eye-catching advertising that has the brand personality of the most odious, ingratiating jerk you could ever imagine snogging up to you at a cocktail party is deadly.
Bad for the brand and worse still for the cause of extraordinary advertising because I’m positive someone has this client convinced they are doing very “edgy”, unexpected work.
Absolutely. I’ve been looking at this campaign for what feels like years now, wondering if there’s something I’m missing. It actually started to make me feel dumb.
It feels like a tease campaign, but it never gets resolved.
Vodka advertising is an exercise in vapidity anyway but this skips past vapid and dives straight into stupid.