About creativity, not censorship |
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| It was Bill Bernbach who said “creativity isn't an indulgence, it's a business tool”. But, asks Breandan O Broin, how many advertisers would still agree? |
The legendary Bill Bernbach claimed that promoting a
brand through creative advertising wasn't an optional luxury; it was a
prerequisite of building a successful business. Bernbach was the man
who founded DDB and wrote the original VW campaigns that still shine
with an unequalled clarity.
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CRUMBLY TAKE
Publicis in the UK was briefed by Cadbury to reinvent the Flake girl |
Bernbach believed in the principle of 'show, don't tell', an
approach that allowed advertising be a conversation between a conscious
consumer and an alert advertiser. How many contemporary business
leaders would agree with him? Or do they view creativity as an
unfocussed whim – sometimes winning, but more of turning into an
expensive error of marketing guesswork.
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GALAXY STAR
David and Victoria Beckman are off to Los Angeles. A study commissioned |
As creativity veers ever further away from promoting values that
stem from within the brand and more towards
'entertainment-with-a-logo', the likelihood of a new Bernbach emerging
seems remote.
In particular, agencies must worry at the present tendency for
clients to demand 'retro' advertising, as major brands such as
Cadbury's Flake reintroduce famous campaigns from yesteryear which
research says have a greater public resonance than much modern
creativity.
Dipping into creative history is not misty-eyed retrospection
for such clients; it is a hard-nosed business decision. In that, they
would have Bernbach's full support. There's no room for indulgence,
creativity has to earn its keep. But is there a single raison d'etre
for the present creative ennui? Probably not, but a contemporary
commentator, one Simon Collins, a former creative director of JWT Down
Under, offers one suggestion.
Collins claims the trend for global advertising to ignore the
power of language is “dumbing down an industry in need of more brains”.
Here, he and Bernbach are at one. Bernbach believed strongly in a
language-centric analytical communications process; creativity was best
when built from the ground up. Today, Collins argues that the
advertising world has turned on its axis with art direction holding the
premier position. Perhaps this indicates that in our modern society
words count for less, but book and magazine sales continue to rise.
Harry Potter and SMS have combined to make words sexy again.
The real enemy of flaccid creativity is globalisation.
Alongside new 'wordless' international work, ads which rely on an
understanding of language can look parochial; hence the desire for the
universality of an entirely visual idea.
The fact is ads without words devalue the power of advertising and it
is those agencies that revalue forms of expression in which the yin and
yang of art and argument is maintained who will re-engage with
consumers.
Creativity will then throw off its contemporary blindfolds and
re-establish itself in the way Bernbach envisaged it over six decades
ago, as an essential business tool which profits those who dare invest.
MUSICAL NOTES
The Orchestra of Saint Cecilia has embarked on a mammoth musical
journey of bringing every one of Bach's Cantatas to audiences in Saint
Anne's Church in Dublin's Dawson Street. The programme, which started
in 2004, will recommence next autumn and is due to run until 2010.
What is most unusual is the identity of the company that has
volunteered to sponsor this niche activity. You might expect a bank or
pharmaceutical company to be stumping up the sponsorship readies. It's
the sort of thing ESB did in the enlightened days when Barney Whelan
was in charge.
But the big brand boys are not involved. Instead, a Dublin Tool
and Socket company has being doing the honours and becomes Stray
Thoughts candidate for a B2B Arts sponsorship award.
Still with sponsorship, it appears celebrity endorsement may
not be all it's cracked up to be. The University of Bath reports that
university students are more likely to be impressed by an endorsement
from a fellow student than from a David Beckham or a Penelope Cruz –
particularly when the product is from the high-tech expensive end of
the spectrum.
This is understandable, but what throws the applicability of
the research into question is its specificity. The project focused only
on German students and the celebrity endorsee offered was an unnamed
German celebrity. No offence meant, but world-famous German celebs lack
the cachet of the Davids and Penelopes. We asked Jeeves for suitable
suggestions and he came up with Einstein, Dietrich, Brecht and
Gutenberg – not the usual stuff of contemporary celebrity. Food for
thought nonetheless, particularly when next you are faced with the
inflated financial demands of our local D-listers.
Back on the Beckham front, schadenfreude lies in the fact that
his latest football injury was caused by a collision with a pitch-side
hoarding. Hold the Marketing cover (sorry, all you at Bloom)…
advertising is bad for Becks.
SEX 'N' SALES
The bad news is sex doesn't
sell as much as we hoped. The good news is women now control the levers
of commerce, dominating major purchasing decisions like never before.
Advertising specifically directed towards women is now a real tool in
the communications repertoire.
That's the gist of Inside Her Pretty Little Head, a chick-lit
sounding book by Jane Cunningham and Phillipa Roberts. IHPLH argues
that to sell to the females, male-dominated marketing (they can't have
visited many Irish marketing departments lately) needs to embrace four
feminine codes.
We have the Altruism Code ('every little helps'); the
Aesthetic Code (round instead of square tea-bags), the Ordering Code
(talk more about pricing and profit issues) and The Connecting Code (TV
Book Clubs, Weight Watchers).
James Harding, business editor of the London Times, suggests
that while it's easy to scoff at the pseudo-science of caricaturing
gender roles and codifying them for business, it remains true that the
most effective marketers to women happen to rank among the world's most
profitable brands.
Time to get back in touch with your feminine side.
HOT PANTS
It's accepted as one of the downsides of our business that sometimes
it's necessary for an agency to kiss ass. But a recent Oscar nominee,
former model Djimon Hounsou, has carried this obsequious activity to a
new low. In becoming the new face of Calvin Klein underwear, Djimon
said that “representing such an iconic brand signifies to me that I
have been accepted – dreams really do come true'. Whatever about an
Oscar, Djimon certainly walks away with the Brown Nose of the Year
statuette.
Kathryn Bigelow is another of the film fraternity who has
turned to adland to boost a flagging movie career. She has directed Uma
Thurman in a four-minute mini-movie car chase for Pirelli, the Italian
tyre brand.
Kathryn and Uma have yet to claim their adland forays have
made them feel more accepted in either human or in Hollywood terms, but
just wait until the ad awards season really gets into full swing.
BATTLE OF WILLS
An interesting power
struggle developed between the RTE copy clearance committee and the new
boys on the block from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).
Both bodies were in disagreement over the acceptability of Trocaire's
Lenten Appeal commercial created by Chemistry.
RTE said it was hunky-dory, but BCI ordered it to be pulled
from independent stations because of its allegedly politicised agenda.
The commercial suggests female babies in far-away places will suffer
discrimination simply by virtue of their gender which seems a bit rich
coming from an organisation sponsored by the Catholic Church, as
several people pointed out.
The BCI suffered a universal hammering over the ban, being
accused of “taking an outrageously narrow interpretation of the law”.
Heavy hitters such as Senator David Norris, Barnardos' Fergus Finlay,
Michael D and the RTE Questions & Answers panel all added their
strident criticism.
The net outcome was an ignominious U-turn of Thatcherite
proportions by the BCI brigade. Trocaire adjusted a semi-colon (or
something) and all was well.
But a deeper agenda may be lurking in the commercial
undergrowth because BCI is due to take over responsibilities for all
copy clearance in the autumn. This means RTE will lose yet more of its
cherished power and independence. Never thought I'd find myself on the
side of the RTE copy clearance crew, but the devil you know, et cetera.
Our advertising business is bursting at the seams with censors. It's
the biggest growth industry in town.
As if to prove the point, yet more would-be censors appear on the
horizon. Now it's the turn of Concerned Parents seeking the banning of
the advertising of 'sexualised' toys such as Barbie's Hot Tub Party Bus
and the Bratz Forever Diamondz Doll Funky Torso. Mind you, they may
have a fair point.
We live in an era of 'age compression' where 'kids are getting
older younger'. Aren't the old staying younger longer? Pretty soon
everyone on the planet will be 30-something and there will be equality
for all, including black girl babies who want to grow up and become a
bishop.
In the meantime, keep an eye out, there's a censor about.
HAPPY ENDING
Here's to the guy who proposed by making a commercial asking his
girlfriend to marry him and showing it in their local cinema. She said
'yes' when the lights went up. Advertising makes people feel good; tell
that to the censor.
Breandan O Broin is founder and director of Company of Words.
