The Motz from Butz: Marlboro talks in riddles

What is this about: Don't be a Maybe or No more Maybe is what it says on Marlboro's latest billboard. Finally, it says Be and the Marlboro box. So I'm supposed to be Marlboro? What a crock of shit. Before the advertising restrictions, I could have been a cowboy, after all. Marlboro is not the first, by the way. Orange also already wanted me to "Be Orange ".

Does the youth of today no longer have the mega cool and awesome He-Man language? Do they speak Skakespeare English now? That is the question. I asked some young smokers what is being communicated on the posters. The answers show that they don't even consciously look at posters and then, after thinking about it for a long time, don't really understand what is meant by May Be.

My thesis: Advertising would have the task of conveying a clear message to the consumer within one second. With many advertising campaigns, I often don't succeed in finding out what they want to communicate to me, even after intense sensing. If I don't zap away on TV, but watch the commercial break, it very often happens that my fellow viewers and I look at each other asking "did you get that? It's a pity about the viewing costs.

There are companies that have recognized this phenomenon and have the TV spot representatively tested for comprehensibility. The compromise result is usually terribly boring, and you don't even want to know what it's about. For years, the hair shampoo industry has not only explained to women what the bottle is called and what it looks like, but also how to use it: Wet your hair, take a small amount of shampoo in your hand, and then wash your hair with lots of lather. The clarification takes 5-10 sec. of the commercial. A clever advertiser once calculated that worldwide in one year over 1 billion dollars of advertising money is wasted for this washing instruction researched in the test. My calculation: Of the posters hanging at the moment, half are incomprehensible and do not reach the consumer. With a 14-day billposting price of 500 Swiss francs on average and over 150,000 Swiss advertising spaces, this results in a 50 percent ineffectiveness of 37.5 million Swiss francs. Including the Marlboro billposting.

My put-upon of the week is that our 20-year-old Long John Silver climbing rose, after this year's winter cold froze it, has now sprouted new buds and has already formed buds.

Theophil Butz, once a star advertiser (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].