15. Great Print Ads for Pharmaceutics

I was sitting in a lecture today surfing the web and I came across great post from Beautiful Life. The post was a montage of pharmaceutical ads that truly hit the nail on the head. I collected a few of the ads that I thought visually depicted the symptoms of a health issue, or how the particular pharmaceutical company addresses these issues.

The first ad I want to point out is for a pharmaceutical company called Nycomed.

The pharmaceutical company hired Sentrix Global Health Communication (SGHC) to handle the account.  SGHC did an excellent job portraying the agony that people experience due to back pain. I particularly enjoy the metaphor of the sawblade as a source of pain in the persons back. The ability of SGHC to illustrate Nycomed’s purpose, without using heavy copy, is what makes this ad successful.

The second ad I want to bring attention to is for a pharmaceutical company called Kitadol.

Kitadol is a South American company that sells pharmaceutical products to women on their menstrual cycle. Kitadol hired Chilean  ad agency Prolam Y&R to take on the ad. As a result of their work, Prolam Y&R replaced the women in the campaign with fighters. It would appear that Prolam Y&R did this to show how some women feel while they are on their menstrual cycle. The ad suggests that women who feel irritable, frustration or anger while their period is taking place can find a solution by using Kitadol. Perhaps, the ad could also be directed at men too. I say this because the tag-line says “get her back,” which suggests that the ad wants men, who can’t deal with their female significant other’s period, to recommend the female in their life try using the product.

The last pharmaceutical ad I want to share is for a company named Otrivin.

Otrivin hired a Saatchi & Saatchi (SS), a Polish ad agency, to handle the account. SS came up with a series of ads that shows the results of Otrivin’s product.

I think we all know what it feels like to have a stuffed nose and how annoying that can be. SS did a great job showing how easy it is to breath after the use of Otrivin’s product. It is probably impossible to inflate a balloon with your nose, but the connection of easy breathing is there.

Pharmaceutical  companies do face the difficult task of creating ads that are original, creative and have the ability to break through the clutter. However, ads like these are successful at making this happen.

14. Black Magic

Over the past few months, I have noticed that NBA commentator and former basketball player Charles Barkley has appeared in several Weight Watchers (WW) commercials. The company has made Barkley a spokes person for Weight Watchers For Men, and Barkley is doing a good job.

Check it out:

Barkley claims to have lost 23 lbs. since he started using the weight-loss program, and this appears to be true.

However, is there more than just weight-loss going on in this commercial?

I believe so.

By using black in all aspects of the commercial, meaning clothing and background, WW is disguising Barkley’s real shape. I am sure that Barkley has noticeably lost weight, but the emphasis of black in the commercial can hide his true figure.

According to Cattleprod Media, “Black is the most flattering color. This is the most popular tip about dressing to look slim. The secret to dressing to look slim is all about tricking the eye and creating subtle, yet effective, optical illusions. Wearing the color black technically outlines your silhouette. Now this does sound contradictory, but let me explain. Shadows caused by the contours of your body are ‘absorbed’ in the black and therefore the 3D effect of all your bumps and bulges is reduced.”

With that being said, this commercial does appear to be masking Barkley’s true figure. I will argue that the reason for this is to make WW appear more effective than it appears to be.

By placing a larger man in front of a black background and in black clothes, the majority of the shadows that would show his figure seem to disappear. The argument is not that this is some type of unethical practice, but that there was serious thought taken into consideration when making this ad.

If you have a hard time agreeing with the argument that WW uses black to slime their spokespeople in some of their commercials, then you should look at a WW commercial featuring Jennifer Hudson.

Take a look:

Again WW has their spokesperson in black to give them a thinner look. This time, WW has placed Hudson in front of a grey background. Grey does not have the same profound effect as the black background in the Barkley commercial, but it works to mask Hudson’s figure nonetheless.

13. Success and Failure of Outdoor Ads

I love how media planners are responsible for buying ad space, especially when it comes to buying space for outdoor ads. There are times when the creative department and media planners behind outdoor ads have moments of pure genius and times of epic failure. To demonstrate this point, I have created two lists of ads that meet one of these areas.

A few of the bad:

Whoever the media planner on this account obviously did not take into consideration the fact that automobiles spit up mud from the road. In this instance, the mud happens to make the ad look like the woman pooped her pants.

This outdoor ads features two separate ads that play off each other to produce a questionable adult situation. Each ad is perfect on its own, but the placement of the two next to each other is a recipe for disaster.

We see the unfortunate placement of two ads appear again in this image. The question behind this ad should be, was the media planner behind the tobacco ad conscious of the ads that would appear next to their own ad? Or, was the media planner for the cancer ad challenging the tobacco ad, and in the process did a superb job of bringing awareness to the side effects of tobacco?

A few of the best:

In a true moment of genius, the creative and media planner behind this Kit Kat ad found a way to make it work. Rather than taking a park bench or a bus stop bench and making a mundane ad, this ad thinks outside the box and has turned the bench in the product.

In my opinion, the “Click it or Ticket” campaign has not been that successful. The reason being, it is a dull subject to advertise. Also, it is already difficult to capture the attention of people, so how do you grab the attention of people and make them want to wear a seatbelt?

This billboard is an answer. The totaled car captures the attention of people in their cars, and then the bold copy reminds them of the importance of a seatbelt. I think that the delivery of this ad is original and breaks through the clutter that exists on most billboards.

This ad is smart and creative in its delivery. Everyone who owns a cell phone has experienced, at one point or another, what it is like to have a call drop. This ad calls the problem to attention by making the ad appear as though it had dropped the call on the sidewalk below it. The ad was so good at grabbing people’s attention that bystanders stop and take pictures of the creative work.

12. Sports Illustrated With no Sports

Sports Illustrated (SI) is praised as one of the best photojournalistic magazines to date. One thing that sets them aside from the rest is their ability to cover all sports with an unbiased point of view. This is what draws people to subscribe to the magazine.

One thing I enjoy about SI is the magazines ability to keep advertisements to a minimum and put an emphasis on content. An emphasis on content rather than selling ad space is something unique to magazines, such as SI, that are directed at a male audience. This is not mentioned to undermine the content or quality of magazines directed at women; rather it is to make an argument.

Once a year, SI publishes the SI Swimsuit Issue, which features a selection of the most attractive models in swimsuits at locations around the world. When the swimsuit issue premiered in 1964, the photos acted as a supplement to the sports magazine. Over the years, the issue evolved into its own entity, which is what we all know as the “SI Swimsuit Issue.”

It is remarkable to note that the issue features nearly no sports content what so ever. In fact, in this year’s issue there is one sports article in the SI issue, yet the interesting thing is men never argue over it.

The lack of content in SI’s Swimsuit Issue means one thing: Advertising galore!

That’s right! On every photo of the models, there is the name of the maker of the swimsuit and any jewelry the model might be wearing. Although that may not seem like anything at all, that notoriety can result in product or name recognition for the individual designer.

The swimsuit issue is so widely praised by SI’s audience that the issue accounts for a substantial portion of SI’s annual sales. A CNBC article reports that in 2009, the swimsuit issue was responsible for generating seven percent of SI’s annual revenue.

One thing is certain; SI has created an issue that generates substantial revenue by selling advertising space. The best part is SI’s readership could care less that the issue features no content and all advertisements.

11. An Unorthodox Cosmetic Campaign

Dermablend Professional Coverage Cosmetics provides one of the best foundation makeup products to consumers. But Dermablend was faced with the question, how do we portray the effectiveness of our product to consumers?

The answer: Find one of the most tattooed individuals on this planet and make them look like they had never heard of a tattoo.

Dermablend did exactly this. They produced a video that shows the effectiveness of hiding tattoos.

Check it out.

From this video, Dermablend launched a social media campaign that allowed people to visit one of the company’s sponsor websites. The website allows people to leave comments on a message board and talk about the product, brand and the advertisement. In addition to this, Dermablend made it possible to “meet Zombie Boy” and go behind the scenes to see how the ad was created.

What Dermablend did with this campaign allowed people to access one location and explore the product. This exploration results in increase product awareness, which subsequently increases brand awareness.

Dermablend’s thinking behind this ad is unorthodox for a makeup company, but it is one of the most effective cosmetic ads I have ever seen.

10. 23 Flavors and Always One of a Kind

I was an ad the other day for Dr Pepper that emphasized that the product is “Always One of a Kind.”

The ad suggests that Dr Pepper can be an extension of ones expression of their individuality. I think that this is an interesting way to sell the product. The ad does not confront its competition, or attempt to persuade people to purchase it based on product characteristics.

Instead, the ad is selling individuality. But why?

Take a quick look at the commercial:

Perhaps it always has. I feel like everyone knows that Dr Pepper has 23 flavors, because that was one of their key selling points for so long. But aren’t the 23 flavors of Dr Pepper what gives it the unique flavor that sets the soda aside from its competition?

However, now they are trying to push the product in a new direction. I believe this should push the product in the right direction. It appears to me as though Dr Pepper is unifying the unique taste of the product with its consumer as an outlet of individuality. There even is enough attention to detail as to denote an individual in the ad as “I’m a rebel.” The person who is wearing this shirt has on the reversed colors, white and red, that everyone else is wearing, red and white. This serves as an ad to our subconscious for Diet Dr Pepper.

What ever the true intentions of this ad may be, I like the emphasis on the product as “Always One of a Kind.”

9. Change on the Horizon for Digitally Produced Ads

Over the past few days, I have come across several articles that indicate there may be a few big changes coming to advertising. These articles state that there is a new bill, House Bill 1793, that has emerged from Arizona, and it wants to change the way people advertise.

The bill, proposed by Rep. Katie Hobbs, aims to prevent advertisers from digitally enhancing images without making it public knowledge that the image has been altered from its original form. Hobbs is suggesting that in the case of digital alteration occurring in an advertisement, the ad must have an advisory warning. The advisory warning would state something similar too, “Postproduction techniques were made to alter the appearance in this advertisement. When using this product, similar results may not be achieved.”

The bill’s primary focus is to prevent misleading advertisements aimed at cosmetics and beauty supplies.

In an article by Alia Beard Rau, it is reported that: “Off Our Chests is behind the push for similar federal legislation it calls the Media and Public Health Act. The National Eating Disorders Association and other groups have joined the push for a federal law, but no member of Congress has yet agreed to carry it.”

But what if this law passes in Arizona, or becomes a federal law?

Other than another annoying disclaimer cluttering advertisements, I would say not too much.

Maybe sales decrease for some cosmetic companies, because their product does not offer the results that prior ads would make you believe. If anything, I would imagine that if this bill passes it will increase in brand transparency. At the very least, consumers that can see the product they are using in ads, and not a photo-shopped version, will result in more trust and usage of that brand.

8. BP Sounds Too Much Like Bull Shit

By now we should all know of the mass devastation of the Gulf Coast ecosystem and economy caused by the April 2010, oil spill that was not officially sealed until Sept. 2010.

A few months ago, BP started to run an ad campaign highlighting the fact that the Gulf Coast has recovered from the devastating oil spills the company caused, and that the region is open for tourism. But has the region recovered, or is BP paying for positive press with this campaign?

In Nov. 2011, BP released the following video:

The commercial highlights the tourist industry for the Gulf Coast states that were affected by the oil spill. By the end of the commercial, viewers are left with the feeling that BP has done their job and the region has recovered.

The next month, in Dec. 2012, BP released another ad r=from this campaign. Take a look at what BP had to say this time.

In this commercial BP puts more of an emphasis on the progress that has been made. BP reports in the commercial that “the (Gulf Coast) beaches are open for everyone to enjoy” and claims are also made that the economy has recovered in many of the effected areas.

Now, granted BP has been working to fix the horrific problem that they caused, but I believe that BP is misleading people and skewing the transparency of the company’s situation. The amount of environmental destruction that took place due to the oil spill cannot be cleaned and covered up to the degree BP is depicting in one year’s time.

One month prior to BP’s first Gulf Coast commercial, a video was published on YouTube.com that showed a very different side to this story.

Take a look and see the Gulf Coast, as it was one year after the oil spill.

After watching this video, it makes it hard to believe that BP has completed their job. The images of dead sea-creatures complimented by the black, oil-slickened sand resonates much more with me than a cooperate publicity campaign.  Which is why the sugar-coated BP commercials saying all is well is complete bull shit.

See what TIME Magazine had to say about the issue.

7. Scott Bedbury’s Bestowed Industry Wisdom

Today in my Creative Strategist class at the University of Oregon, Advertising Professor Deborah Morrison had a special guest speaker come lecture our class. Deb, as she likes to be called, informed the class of whom the speaker is, and introduced Scott Bedbury.

With quite the advertising and marketing background, Bedbury has worked for such companies as Nike and Starbucks. Bedbury is the advertising executive who is associated with the “Just Do It” campaign Nike is so well known for.  He also was a contributor to the rebranding of Starbucks that helped the company get where it is today. Adding to his list of achievements, Bedbury authored A New Brand World.

Bedbury shared with us insight to the advertising industry and knowledge as to what has made him an industry leader. The following are some of the key points that I took from his lecture.

• “You will make mistakes. Make smart ones, learn from every single one of them, take risks, think big, start small, fail fast. Then scale like a madman.”
• “It’s not what you do, but why you do it. Have a higher purpose than revenues, profits or market share. This separates great brands from providers of stuff.”
• “It’s not just what a brand does but how it feels.”
• “It’s about the experience – everything you control and everything you don’t.”
• “Show up stupid – be forever curious.”
• “Be fully present in the moments that matter most.”
• “Stop seeking permission and deliver what they haven’t yet envisioned.”
• “Consumer distrust in large organizations will only ease through total transparency and a more balanced triple bottom line.”
• “Every transaction, every message, every customer, employee and citizen now hold more potential influence than ever before.”
• “Find ways to use your unique, god-given, superhuman powers for the greater good.”

Bedbury instilled an immense amount of knowledge into every student in the classroom today. His wisdom was heard by all, but wisdom is something that often times cannot be taught and must be learned first-handedly. This does not mean that we all walked away with nothing, but the valuable information what was bestowed upon us will be taken with a grain of salt for later in life, when we can all find a practical application for it.

6. Weiden+Kennedy’s Chrysler Campaign in Review

Everyone knows that the Super Bowl is known for the great commercials. This year, my vote for the best Super Bowl commercial goes to Weiden+Kennedy’s (WK) “It’s halftime America” commercial.

The commercial ran for 2:00, which is an eternity for television commercials, yet the ad broke though the clutter and spoke to people.

How did WK do this?

WK did this by telling a story and using a catchy tagline that resonates with its audience. This is one of the key reasons for the success of this ad.

Last year, WK ran the first ad from this campaign during the Super Bowl. The ad, and the subsequent ads that have followed in its footsteps, have put a great emphasis on where the Chrysler is manufactured; Detroit.

Then, a few months later, WK released the next ad in the campaign.

This time, the ad featured Detroit Lions football player Ndamukong Suh. The ad takes the success and story of, one of the most beloved Detroit athletes, Suh and ties it to Chrysler. WK uses the statement, “show where you’re going, without forgetting where you’re from,” and it works perfectly with the ad.

That particular line of copy acts as a selling point to consumers. It tells them to show off their car without buying one from a different country. This is great because it is reinforcing the idea that the American automobile industry has been struggling. However, people walk away with the idea they by purchasing an American made car they can be proud of what they drive, because it’s American.

Oh yea, then there is the WK Chrysler commercial from this year’s Super Bowl that I mentioned earlier.

This ad is great because it calls attention to many different concerns that our nation faces. In our nations current state of economic uncertainty, WK use brilliant copy to break through the clutter.

The ad, which was aired during halftime, grabs your attention from the get-go. It plays with peoples emotions that are tied to current events, and then dabbles with traits found in the fabric of America. However, the ad ends on a positive, optimistic note. The speaker, Clint Eastwood, states: “What true about them (Detroit) is true about all of us. This country can’t be knocked out with one punch, we get right back up again, and when we do the worlds going to hear the roar of our engines. It’s halftime America and our second-half is about to begin.”

But, what is it about all of these ads that are unified, and I’m not talking about the client?

Well, Joe Staples of WK mentions it in a TED talk. Staples mentions that one of the primary objectives was to, “take people from this is what you thought (about Detroit and Chrysler), to this is what we feel.”

This, I believe, is true to all of the ads that are part of this campaign. It creates a uniform alignment that tells a story and speaks to people, which is why I believe that this WK campaign has been one of the more successful campaigns over the past year.