The Motz from Butz: There we have the head lettuce
If competitors—such as political parties—want to stand out and win the election, they’d have to come up with something more distinctive and original than what we’ve seen on the posters and in the ads. It’s just uncreative, uninspiring, run-of-the-mill drivel.
What it is about. - How can Hans Hollenstein's party imagine that with this passport photo of Mr. Hollenstein they will convince the majority of voters and he will be re-elected without any problems. But he is not the only one who has fallen prey to this unimaginativeness. All parties ha¬ben a passport photo of their candidates and used empty slogans such as "More freedom", "Proven and committed" or (SVP) "Competently committed, assertive" and (BDP) "Committed, competent, determined".
My thesis: I assume that 80% of the advertising messages are not assigned to the sender and possibly even ignored. The whole thing is an unsuccessful waste of money, from which the billboard companies and publishers are certainly happy to profit.
On Monday after the elections, Mr. Hollenstein was surprised that his advertising had not attracted enough attention or had gone down. No wonder, old man with a moustache and empty words certainly brings nothing. If he at least looked like Reagan or Schwarzenegger, I would have gone for the "portrait" strategy, too. The most effective advertising strategy was that of Hollenstein's employees after the lost election by means of radio interviews. The praiseworthy things they said about their boss would have made a perfect election campaign. But now it's too late.
I'm not just talking here as a moth, I've also invented ideas for a politician before. As the simplest solution, I suggested that he put his political goals of "turning things upside down" into practice and at least have the posters that were already printed hung upside down with additional adhesive.
Finally, he also didn't realize he needed to shave off his mustache to demonstrate the big changes he wants to achieve. It takes courage. Talk has no place in advertising.
Even the advertising for our beloved cars is a uniform mishmash with exceptions. The same applies to fashion advertising from Coop, C&A, Vögele, Manor, etc. If you think away the logo, the same happens as with political advertising, a one-size-fits-all mush. H&M and Tally Weijl are somewhat different.
I'm not really surprised that the advertising is becoming quieter and more uniform. In the end, I met five old, younger advertising colleagues on the street. All of them dressed in coal black from top to bottom according to the advertising motto "Just don't attract attention". My red and green shoe has hopefully left a positive advertising effect on the aforementioned.
The opener this time for me was the aperitif prolongé for Irene Hiltpold's birthday, where I met all the old colorful birds from design, film, photography, graphics, music and art again.
Theophil Butz, once a star advertiser (quote Ringier), now an inspirer and, as of now, a mothballer. "Not an easy role, but a necessary one, which I perform here every fortnight." Please send any relevant information to [email protected].
