Since my last post put me on the subject of advertising, I thought I'd talk about the book that most influenced my thoughts about that subject. It was "They Laughed When I sat down" by John Caples. It's the same name as the famous ad (above). He influenced my ideas about animation and cartooning, and even influenced how I write this blog.
Caples bucked the system by advocating ads with lots of copy, where the readers learned something and were influenced by the personality of the writer. He respected the intelligence of his audience. Not only that but he believed that people respect ads that don't pretend to be something else. People actually like to be pitched to. I know I do.
Why? Because the world really is an interesting place, and a pitchman makes you realize how wonderful even the small details of life are. In that sense he's like a poet.
I think of Vince doing the ShamWow commercial (above). He made wiping up stains seem almost sacramental! For the price of a simple cloth you got to enjoy picking up all the spills you'll ever have to pick up for the rest of your life. What an incredible bargain! But the thing is, if it's going to work, the cloth really does have to be something special. An ordinary cloth won't do.
If I were a professional ad man I'd much rather sell soup and gum than cars or Viagra or pianos. That's because most people can afford to chew the best gum or eat the best canned soup. They can afford to try different brands and figure out what the best one is. They know you're right on the money when you talk about how great Campbell's Chicken Broth is. BUT...
...but you're not really selling the broth. You're selling the opening of the can, you're selling the wonder of pouring liquid and of fire igniting on a stove. You're even selling the feeling of a warm spoon in the mouth. In other words, you're a poet selling the joy of having senses and being alive. The product is just an excuse.
if you're hired to sell a product you believe in then you're free to explore the really deep essence of it and show what you've discovered to others. That's a wonderful thing.
BTW: which of the ads above do you think sold a lot of soup? It's a cheater question because the right answer in my opinion is neither. Can you guess what's wrong with both of these? The answer's on the comments page.
Also BTW: Vince recently got in a lot of trouble for beating up a prostitute who bit his tongue and wouldn't let go. The pictures are on Smoking Gun. They're pretty gruesome.
That comment about selling the joy of being alive reminds me of a section from "Dandelion Wine", where Bradbury describes these tennis shoes that were perfectly ordinary tennis shoes, but he makes you feel like they were the most magical, wonderful shoes to ever exist. It was so weird to read a pitch for tennis shoes in a novel, but he does it so beautifully that I bet everybody who ever read that book wanted to buy them.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the problem is that neither of them are actually eating it.
ReplyDeleteI had to think real hard on it, but I think the trouble with both pictures is that neither the girl nor the football play seem to be particularly excited about the soup. In fact, the football player isn't even looking at the soup! It's very casual.
ReplyDeleteThe older one is relying on the appeal of the girl and the warmth of the photo to build a connection with the viewer. The nonsensical slogan doesn't really add much.
The newer one, though, has built up the odd relationship between soup and football, and that just doesn't make sense. I remember the television ads have to go out of their way to explain the connection, and by the time they're done there's hardly enough time to talk about what's so great about the soup! So if I had to choose between the two, I'd pick the older one for its instant visual appeal. The newer ad assumes that you are into both football and nutrition, which, in my experience, are two audiences that don't overlap much.
I'm really hungry, though, so I'm drawn to both right now!
The older ad is simple in layout and easy to read.
ReplyDeleteThe new one has a cluttered layout which makes it hard to read.
I think the problem with both ads is that the primary focus is on the person in the picture and not on the product.
ReplyDeleteanother interesting post. I never thought about an ad guy as a poet before, and now I'm fully convinced a (good) ad guy should. But then again thats pretty much th main reason i read your blog, it makes me look at things in a different way.
ReplyDelete"You're selling the opening of the can, you're selling the wonder of pouring liquid and of fire igniting on a stove. You're even selling the feeling of a warm spoon in the mouth. In other words, you're a poet selling the joy of having senses and being alive"
wow you made me wanna really eat soup now and I dont even like it that much.
the first picture is simpler with a cheap, homely appeal, but with a lack of passion for the product itself.
The second is bright and flashy, which can be good if used right, but here? no. theres plenty of problems with it , the main one being its a professional sports star eating soup (and chunky soup? yuck) and the slogan is just lame.
The problem is that neither are actually eating it, just giving strange stares.
ReplyDeleteSeverin: A good analysis! The picture of the football player is a great attention grabber, but he has no logical or emotional attachment to the soup. You could take the soup out of his hand and substitute a Nike shoe and nobody would know the difference.
ReplyDeleteEven so, it's not what I'm looking for.
Don, Rooni: True, the focus is on the people rather than the soup, especially in the case of the athlete...but something else is missing.
Oisin, Marsh: Thanks for the compliment! And I also got the feeling that the girl had to psych herself into feeling good about the soup. This is the kind of thing illustration does better than photography.
THE ANSWER: ER...I'm in an embarassing situation because I've held up an item for ridicule...the tomato soup ad... then on closer inspection discovered that it was actually pretty well done. Now I'm more inclined to defend the ad than attack it.
ReplyDeleteThe ad with the girl really isn't half bad. She's an appealing kid, and she launches a fantasy in the reader's mind about what it would be like to have a kid who's charming and well-behaved. It's a picture that brings out your maternal instincts, even if you're a guy.
I was down on the ad because I thought it lacked physicality and context. You don't see the kitchen or the mother who prepared the soup, or any of that, and I missed it. That was stupid of me because adding all that would have just created clutter.
One problem was the way the soup looked. It came off as a flat, red disk, sans highlights or texture. That's the way tomato soup actually looks, so the art director was faced with a thorny problem. He solved it by turning a liability into an asset, and keyed the whole picture off the theme of red. Not a bad solution.
The football ad is easier to criticize. It's bold and full of impact; it's just not right for selling soup.
I was going to guess that no one airbrushed steam onto the soup like they used to way back.
ReplyDeleteThe colour contrast of the second pic is INCREDIBLY bold AND specific to the needs of the ad, so it's brilliant in theory....the only problem being that it's incredibly unattractctive.
ReplyDeletei'm glad you changed your mind about the tomato soup ad, because upon seeing it I found it immediately appealing and made me want some soup right away-cozy, warm, soothing-tasty, even. Exactly as was intended.
ReplyDeleteThere's an ancient bond between soup & motherhood.
ReplyDeleteIn the Campbell's slogan, the word, "you " is underlined. The message is, "Mother yourself." The picture is bathed in a hazy, warm nostalgia & the little girl could be from 1968 or 1953.
The presence of Mom suffuses the 2nd ad. She's struggled & sacrificed to build this boyish Superman. Even if he didn't get the sneakers he wanted so badly, he got the top-of-the-line, name-brand luxury soup. And it shows!
re: Vince
A gentleman would have known not to kiss a call girl on the mouth, at least without asking first. To tell the truth, I instinctively grit my own teeth when I contemplate Vince's tongue down my throat.
It strange how they girl doesn't look quite well, or like she's just woke up. Her eyes are slightly darkened and a little puffy. At the least she looks a bit subdued; something a bit sacramental about her posture.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this is from the sixties, they were marketing the soup to parents who grew up during the Great Depression, when getting a can of soup was a bit deal. Great depression nostalgia....
Somewhere embedded in that ad is "You know young lady, there are starving children in Africa; So you'd better finish your soup!"
Sorry Eddie if my comment was vicious somehow :S
ReplyDeleteIt was not made out of spite, maybe I crossed the line by saying hate towards americans, being anonymous etc.
blgugd