08 Nov

Pure Laziness

I’m clearly on a roll with spotting tube ads that raise my hackles at the moment.

I know that Kindle is the leading e-book on the market, but these Amazon ads are so lazy it beggars belief:

AmazonCrap2  AmazonCrap

They’ve, literally, just restated the brief on the ads.

What was the conversation that went on with the creative team working on this?
‘Well we’ve got to get across, to the target audience, that the new Kindle is exactly like reading a book’
‘Okay, let me think….. got it! Why don’t we have “it felt like reading a book” as a quote, with a picture of someone, smiling, holding a new Kindle?’
‘Genius! And just so everyone believes a real person said that, we can stick “Denise, book-lover” under the quote’
‘Well done!… consider yourself promoted to Creative Director.’

I guess many people will buy a new Kindle regardless – it’s the brand leader – but still, these ads are so insulting to anyone with an ounce of intelligence/anyone who can work out that of course the company selling the e-book is going to say it reads like a real book. I thought this kind of advertising died out in the 1950s.

Maybe it’s the way forward? Maybe Audi should start showing pictures of cars with
“This car is brilliant. It handles really well. It’s the best £40,000 I’ve ever spent, and everyone should definitely buy one today”
Tim – driver.

I didn’t cover my thoughts on the other Kindle ad shown, but there isn’t much more to say. The brief clearly said to get across that the Kindle is very clear in bright sunshine, so they just stuck that sentence within speech marks and attributed it to ‘Ross – daily reader’  (he must be a laugh a minute at parties: ‘My coat, during storms, keeps me dry’)

The only thing I can think is that the creative team who were passed this brief were given 30 minutes to complete it.
If not, then they should be carted away and boiled down to make glue.

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