Flushing publicity!!!
As I was coming to work today I noticed a new advertising campaign by tmn, Portugal's biggest cell phone operator.When I say new I mean new to me, for all that I know those billboards may be there for weeks now, I do tend not to notice such obvious things from time to time.
The words on the sign translate to: "We like Indian food. We like life such as it is. Tmn. See you later".
What does Indian food have to do with cell phones?
Why choose this picture?
I wonder how Indians react to this...
For my part, and considering I pay little to no attention to most ads, I must recognize that I did notice these ones. However I wouldn't want to be a client of a company that "associates" such imagery to their products. Unless their products are toilet paper or something along those lines.
(click on picture to enlarge)
posted by DCveR at 1:02 PM
24 Comments:
I was about to say that I have no clue what that ad means, but Kilburna may be on to something. Very funny explanation!
It manages to be both offensive and baffling - clever hey?!
Probably the only guy/girl who understands this must be an art director of some pr-company with some personal experiences he/she thinks is common...
kilburina: Hi, welcome! Maybe it is indeed to relate to the 'man on the street'. But that man only cares if calls are cheap or not, that pretty much all 'he' wants to know about a cell phone provider.
nml: Sit back and let us wait if some other explanation comes along. I'm curious too.
annie: So I'm not the only one to find it offensive?
isa, isae: Some of the creative people around here are stoned most of the time, maybe our minds simply aren't tuned with theirs...
Someone, somewhere is a clever shit-stirrer!
It makes you angry, it makes you laugh, it makes cry!
Isn't this what advertising is all about?
i dont think thats a very good choice of publicity.
would not be surprised if they pull it after a bit.
for telecoms its best to have a consistant campaign with a highly recognizable personality- and a slogan.
I thought I understood Portuguese, but after this ad, I changed my mind.
The only thing I can think of is that they provide a shitty service. DCveR use "Telefonica" (I am just trying to tease DCveR, Telefonica is the Spanish telecom provider, at least they have better ads!!)
maybe they're stuck in there so long they have to call for help?
i don't really get it, either. but i have a lot of indian friends and i'm pretty sure they'd say that if portuguese people can't hang, they should be sure and eat a lot of yogurt with their chicken tikka.
well, my point is that no matter how stoned you are, some people cant handle spices or curry or whatever; this pr, or telecompany, has one of those guys inside their organization... And that might tell more about this persons cosmopolitanism than any commersial channel would want to recognize:)
Ha! Cadiz12, I think you've got it. DCveR, I think it is pretty offensive.
cream: Yup, that is advertising, but they should be careful not to make the would be clients so mad that they will turn to other operators. Not that I care about their profits.
tall glass: I actually think their service is pretty shitty, so maybe the ads are actually fit.
Ale: Not many campaigns get pulled back here in Europe.
Ian: LOL Telefonica doesn’t operate here. At least not yet. But we still have Vodafone, at least those have a good service in Portugal, unlike TMN and Optimus. But I wouldn’t mind having Telefonica here too, the more operators the lower the prices.
Cadiz: You may be onto something there!!! Either that or they are just saying their service fits the situation.
isa, isae: Right, jumping from there to such a generalization does seem narrow mindedness.
Annie: Last night I asked some friends what they thought about it, they all agreed on that point.
lol, its just an excuse for people who goes there, and not an explenation... just a thought, not an idea:)
As an advertising professional for almost 20 years I can tell you that this ad is junk in ANY language.
Please believe me, most of us in advertising strive to do good work. This looks like it was done by the interns. It's a disgrace.
isa, isae: These guys are weird, I tell you. There is no way anybody can figure what goes on their heads.
kris: Thank you for your professional stand on this, I was quite curious about what you were going to say.
I've met several people working in advertising here. Ranging from the the free thinking artists to the burned out pot-heads. Most of their work is quite good though, nothing like this.
Actually, I should have said, it looks like it was done by the interns' kids. Not even MY kids would act this juvenile.
And really, it is the client who suffers ultimately. Of course, we should blame them also, as they bought off on the final idea to begin with. And, IMHO, they got what they paid for. Which is to say, 'Kukae.' (Shit.)
kris: Now that you mention it, I wonder how much did the guy who came up with this earned...
DC: Agencies charge obscene amounts of money for the "creative," which is the concept, or the overall idea. That is before any copy or final artwork is done. The minimum (in my experience) is always at least eight hours each for both copywriter's and art director's time... JUST for the creative. It may take much longer than that, because it is a thinking process.
Or maybe in this case, the client's cousin or nephew was given this job. Who knows, we have had that happen on occasion. Nepotism. In any event it is a complete insult and does the client a disservice, and is the kind of thing that makes all of us who work in advertising look really really bad. Ugh.
I guess such an add serves its point, or we wouldn't be talking about this at all. The point is just finding the way into the common man's memory and wait until the lack of conscience leads the way (with a little help from the "Big-Brother Culture")... anything is possible and works.
Another example for the good results of this "technique" is the outcome of our fabulous elections (!!)... even though one knows how the population behaves, it is always amazing to experience this once again.
BB
Another thought DC, it might be worth 30 seconds of time to go to the cell phone company's Web site and send them an email with your opinion of this ad. If enough people do that, they will pull the offensive thing.
Ariadne, the main goal of long-term, good marketing strategy is to cultivate good image or identity for a company. Only amateurs would consider that momentary shock value (and especially scatological shock value) would be worthy of their advertising budgets and efforts. Sorry, I'm an a soapbox, but i HATE this sort of thing!!
ariadne: If this really works, if it does sell, I guess our country is even in a worst condition than I thought.
kris: Telling such a company anything is worth nothing. Their share of the market is big enough for them not to care.
Sigh, I guess I am just naive enough to believe that a good image is what companies strive to have. It's sad that's all.
... of course it sells... no matter how unbelievable it might sound.
kris, you remember an add campaing for Bennetton, just a few years ago ? People in despair, running away from war on an over-crowded ship (among other strong images)... if you saw it, I'm sure you'll remember and if you remember, you get my point.
BB
Was it a print campaign? did it run in the US? Well Bennetton has always had the "World Colors" concept going. so in their case, a little different from this--which is just plain old bad bathroom 'humour,' using the term loosely.
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