This is a wonderful creative online campaign from Sweden. Some campaigns are pretty hilarious and you just kinda have to step back and think how ridiculous they are. Is the message really that offensive? It's not sexist or misogynist, just silly and absurd!
Here is what Creativity says about this online campaign:
Complemented by banner ads and an outdoor campaign, the somewhat controversial site also hosts a contest where the best fiffi wins a full shaving kit courtesy of RFSU. If one requires a more personal touch, they can contact a real-life midwife from the RFSU clinic for grooming tips via MSN Messenger.
Almost like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, it's interactive and encourages audience participation!
All those online platforms are being built into the architecture for the campaign. This permits various forms of engagement and response.
In an indirect way, I believe that this sort of message encourages greater ownership of one's body and promotes self-empowerment, especially for women. Sure, it's a quirky way to achieve that objective, but we're all adults, right?
(To set the record straight, this blogger only uses one drug, Aspirin, and does not drink or smoke anything. However, she does not mind if others do responsibly. Which is why she's writing this.)
In the previous post, I looked at the not-so-memorable and definitely not so persuasive drug ads. DARE was big in the 90s, and yet the kids donning those t-shirts are the ones harvesting mary jane in their dorm closets. Something didn't work.
There's really no way to judge whether a campaign is effective or not, because its rather impossible to track which would-be user has watched what program/worn which t-shirt. But there are definitely some ads that make you think, or gasp, or say "WOW." Recently, I think we've had some memorable ads. Both of these ads aim to stun, whether making the viewer laugh or gasp in horror. And you don't stun with words. In any film school, you are told that good film making is about showing, not telling. What we have found are two North American ads that quickly show the dangers of drug use in ways that will be remembered by the viewers later on.
This one comes from MTV. Although the network has long abandoned music and opted to be a start-up vehicle for Southern California teens turned celebrities, they have come up with this masterpiece.
When I showed this in my marketing class, I had more fun watching the faces of my classmates. They were calm, then gasped in disgust and proceeded to laugh at the mumbled punch line. The message came very quickly afterwards. Marijuana is regarded as being a "light drug" with numerous researchers arguing that it's less toxic than alcohol and that the main reason it hasn't been legalized is the difficulty of related taxation. The key here was not to get you to stop using it, but to avoid operating heavy machinery, illustrating by the severe lack of judgment displayed by the two gentlemen in the front row seats. They didn't talk about the possibility of car crashes, severe bodily harm or incestuous lip locks. They showed. Wouldn't you remember this one? Wait until you see the next.
The folks who made this have really thought it through. I can really appreciate the horror movie feel, reminiscent of the shower scene in Psycho and The Grudge. The contrast of the light bathroom, the girl-next-door and her future self, battered and crying on the shower floor, pleading for her to alter her future, actually had me saying "Holy crap!" Again, show, don't tell. She doesn't talk about the life of an addict, her images on wounds on her previously flawless face speak volumes of the dangers of meth addiction and how quickly that stage is reached.
When producing these sorts of advertisements aimed at a young audience, I think it's vital to understand the maximum power of your message and adjust accordingly. We are creatures of "do whatever we want" so telling us what to do won't help. We need information! Being condescending with ridiculous preppy afterschool specials never worked. Speaking of which, here's an example...
You can't prevent drug use or drug abuse, as some would argue, or purchases. The key is to make sure you embed these images in young minds and connect them to messages that you want to reappear when your audience is making certain decisions, be they drug use or buying t-shirts.
(To set the record straight, this blogger only uses one drug, Aspirin, and does not drink or smoke anything. However, she does not mind if others do responsibly. Which is why she's writing this.)
I went to Yuk Yuks only one time and, to be honest, only enjoyed one comic. I can't recall his name but the main issue of his act was the US hostility towards Canadian decriminalization of marijuana. He was mainly pissed off that he had to carry his passport to cross the border. His issue was thevilification of marijuana use. The stand-up ganja lover went on to ridicule the US government's notion that by using marijuana, you are "supporting terrorism." He laughed it off. "Terrorism? When I get high the only folks I'm supporting are Rastafarians and single mothers."
Nancy Botwin isn't hurting anyone on Weeds. She's just trying to feed two kids.
The notion of supporting terrorism every time you light up is another in a series of poorly planned and ineffective anti-drug government campaigns, usually issued in releases only picked up by newspapers not read by the crowd they're targeting. Couldn't they come up with anything better? Clearly not.
I remember when we were in grade school, the DARE program was a huge deal. Everyone used those t-shirts they gave out as PJs or smocks for paint class. Regardless of the style choices, DARE seemed useless. For starters, no one knew what it stood for. Most of us still don't. I still think that the goal of the program was to just give you a t-shirt. Maybe I'm just upset that I never got a DARE t-shirt. Who knows, if I went to that school a little longer without a DARE t-shirt, I would feel like an outcast, isolated from my peers, and turn to drugs.
The DARE lion didn't need drugs, because he had this t-shirt and blended in with his friends. Yes to being an individual!
We were well out of the age of the after-school specials and mascots, and the campaign, complete with preppy videos and dancing was just so Zach Morris, the generation couldn't stand it, much less remember its message.
What do you think Zach was doing after school? And wait a minute, how could he afford that phone? Hmm....
Then there was the clip ofRachel Leigh Cooksmashing an egg with a frying pan, staring square into the camera andscreaming "This is your brain on drugs."
The path to any teenager's heart, as any high school teacher will tell you, is not a lecture. Although the speaker is very attractive, mere talking doesn't seem to be incredibly innovative or effective, regardless of the number of smashed eggs. That quickly became a favourite of sketch shows and the late night talk circuit. There were also campaigns to keep kids off drugs and promoting sports programs instead. But the no-drugs rule expires once you hit the major leagues, where drug use is pretty much the norm... until you get caught. It's hard to chase the dragon.
The issue with all these campaigns was that they were telling the audience what to do. It’s hard to argue that teenagers are the smartest crowd, but it’s unreasonable to assume that they are completely incapable of thinking for themselves. They just need extra persuasion and a clever way to deliver the message. Young people are going to make their own decision – we’re just stubborn like that – and there is a need for information, not a dictator. This does not only apply to drugs, but anti-drug campaigns make for a great study of appealing to teenagers and altering their behaviour patterns. Stay tuned for Part II and the discussion of significantly better anti-drug ads.
So, are those bunnies boyfriend and girlfriend? I’m not really sure, but I guess it resonated with kids because Tiny Toon Adventures was so popular at the time. These were pretty cool PSAs and likely effective considering how much kids love cartoons. We still love cartoons.
What was lame:
(2:05) “Way to be” umm…..???
(3:00) “Always stay away from lonely places like alleys, woods, paths, and schoolyards!” Isn’t it strange that in high school I couldn’t wait to leave class to go hang out in those very places?
(3:45) “Cool dudes wouldn’t go off alone if they don’t have to” – and with that the independence of all Gen Y’ers is effectively squashed.
(4:10) A hot blonde whose car is broken down? Come on!
What I learned:
I really wish I had one of those floating skateboards like Bert and Gert.
Daniel is smart and doesn’t let any sick pedos fool him over!
“Never let the caller know you’re alone” – wasn’t this the central theme of Scream? Wise words, Gert.
Body Break
Oh Body Break. These health segments that seemed to run all the time on Canwest, CBC, and CTV stations during the best hours of programming. I especially liked how the summer oriented commercials would run well into the middle of winter as we’re three feet deep in snow and seeing Hal Johnson and Joanne McCloud go sea kayaking seems like a horrible middle finger to television audiences.
What was lame:
The music! Synthesizers never sounded so awful
Apparently all of my food needs can be shown in one confusing graph
Hal’s moustache. Maybe he was trying to look like Freddie Mercury but he missed the boat by about 20 years.
What I learned:
Eat healthy or I’ll have to deal with quiet-speaking health nuts in my kitchen.
Don’t you put it in your mouth
Everything is awful about this commercial. The cheap puppets, the spotty lighting, the ridiculous lyrics. The talking voiceover is cool though, it reminds me of Dr. Hanibal Lecter – “Tell me Clarice, do you still hear the lambs?” Honestly, Silence of the Lambs is a much better PSA than this crap!
What’s Lame:
Beets are not a delicious substitute for candy.
Blue monsters are not an effective substitute for rabbits on hoverboards to teach kids about safety.
What I learned:
The damn song! I’ve committed it to memory now.
To be scared, very scared:
Drugs Drugs Drugs
This is the trippiest PSA ever. It succeeds in getting kids more interested in drugs so they themselves can discover “which are good, which are bad”. I love the kids simultaneously itching themselves and picking their noses while lip syncing ‘drugs, drugs, drugs’. With at least thirty children in the PSA I can just imagine the sobbing and temper tantrums that accompanied making this commercial. I really love how they show good drugs and bad drugs – actual drugs. So what purpose does it serve to show a five year old pictures of heroin and coke? If anything this commercial makes me want to take drugs to understand what the fuss is all about! After all, check out the police officer smiling after the shot of the bad drugs at 0:30.
What was lame:
Police officers rapping about drugs
The lyrics are incomprehensible over the synthesizer and seizure inducing flashes. I should take drugs to find out what they’re saying!
Another butch 'stache on Dad. Super manly.
What I learned:
To ask my mom or ask my dad about drugs because apparently they know a TONNE about drugs!
There's a limit to how much marketing can be learned in the classroom!
Simply put, we're creative, web-surfing, marketing geeks! We'll blog about the brightest campaigns in market today and chew through the spin of contemporary advertising in Canada.
The Bright Ideas Group is a student marketing agency at the Schulich School of Business in York University, Toronto. We produce insight-based solutions for small and large businesses looking for customized marketing plans, on-campus blitzes, and intensive research in youth and online marketing.
