Make Marketing History

The views of a marketing deviant.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink. Say No More. Please.



Humour can be a great route to engagement, but I thought we all knew from personal experience that if the joke has to be explained to you, then the impact is greatly diminished. It's either a bad joke or it's been badly told. Or both.



The parentheses above left me dumbfounded. Not only did it bring to mind memories of excrutiatingly unfunny speakers/party bores, it also managed to be sleazy rather than risque. If you're that unconfident about getting your idea across, tinkering at the edges will simply make things worse. Far better to go back to the drawing-board and craft it properly. If you have to explain it, rewrite it.

4 Comments:

Blogger Robert said...

What is rather alarming - especially for Virgin - is their ads are no longer embracing the personality of the brand, they're just using the ol' "SHOCK" headline approach and then backing it up with condecending corporate diatribes.

I wrote a while back that Virgin owed alot of its success to the fact their competition were so bad, however as they continue down this path of lowest-common-denominator communication, I am afraid even that advantage could be dwindeling away.

I hope not - for everyones sake - the World needs the loud, proud, clever and relevant Virgin company, not another organisation full of management consultancy types and a schoolyard humour creative approach.

5:51 PM, April 09, 2008  
Blogger Charles Edward Frith said...

Given that the UK is one of the fattest countries I don't think shaping up for good sex is going to happen.

Some people also like 'fat' sex.

Me, I'm like a monk!

8:11 PM, April 09, 2008  
Blogger moi said...

I thought the same when I saw this. Its just tacky, and makes me feel very smug going to a rival gym whoI know wouldn't use sex to sell!

2:04 AM, April 14, 2008  
Blogger john dodds said...

Welcome Claire - good to have confirmation from a new face - though I thought smugness was a compulsory facet of gym attendance regardless of their advertising strategies.

3:56 AM, April 14, 2008  

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