To me one of the most striking things about current marketing communications is not how new, fresh and au courant they are. What strikes me is how they actually embrace all the bombast and hype of the advertising industry they claim died years ago.
Here's an example.
Samsung's new Galaxy phone (the name itself seems lifted from Ford Motor's 1960s lineup) has positioned itself as your "Life Companion."
I do understand how essential a phone can be.
I do see people on the bus and train and even on the crowded sidewalks of New York, who can barely take their eyes off their latest game of solitaire. And I do recognize the dependency people have on apps that can find everything from a burrito in Dubai to a date for an ugly guy.
Regardless, however, of how handy this mother-fucking phone is, if it is your life companion, you're in serious trouble.
Most people need the warmth of another human against their carcass.
Not just the warmth of over-heated lithium.
Most people need a real voice to talk to.
Not just something Siri-like.
Everything from tweet-fests to mobile ads to new phones are marketed with the over-blown bombast of a smarmy 1950s announcer.
If that's how you want to do things fine.
But then don't say out of the other side of your mouth that marketing is dead.
I think maybe David Ogilvy said this decades ago. And if he didn't, he should have.
"Advertising is dead, until you need to sell something."
1 comment:
I might add. Advertising is dirty, until you need to sell something. I grew up in Sweden. Where we were taught, by political messages, that advertising was something dirty. But when Sweden wanted to attract tourists the same people talked about the importance of advertising abroad. Ha.
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