Der Motz vom Butz: Why bad advertising happens. Chapter 2

Theory D: The wrong and unrealizable image ideas. The AD's and a copywriter's task is to invent an image print campaign for a family magazine. It should be as eye-catching and humorous as possible. The CD is persuaded to present photographed jokes to the client as an idea. The story is explained in scribble form, as everyone can imagine this idea very well. A new joke subject is to appear every month. So far everything is okay. Interestingly, however, jokes are usually drawn, and for good reason. The people in the joke are always depicted as exaggerated caricatures. Mordillo's characters are like bullets, Sempé's have big noses and Schaad's Eva only has three hairs on her head. And and and. If you photograph a joke, the joke is gone. There are many picture ideas that end up being incomprehensible after realization. The idea of having Denner consumers look surprised and wide-eyed into a shopping bag, so that the viewer is stuck in the bag and looking upwards into the opening, is unclear because people are not familiar with this frog's-eye view from a shopping bag. Everyone I asked about this couldn't understand the message. So the advertising missed its target.

Theory E: Throw five tennis balls to a consumer at the same time. How many can he catch? None. If, on the other hand, you only throw one ball to your target person, there is a very good chance that he will be able to catch it. A basic advertising rule known to all. Or also known as KIS. Surprisingly, however, I come across a lot of advertising that disregards this rule. In TV advertising, this overloading of messages doesn't happen so often, although there would be time for it. The poster, whose message I should be able to grasp in a second, tries to throw up to six tennis balls at me, see the automobile industry advertisement. H&M is spot on. A pretty bikini girl with the text "Top 12.50". You get it all in a second.

Theory F: Imitating successful advertising concepts can really backfire. The success story of Nespresso, for example, could be imitated. You could bring together a film actor like Til Schweiger with Charles Vögele or Hingis with a washing machine. As we know, that doesn't work. Nespresso's recipe for success is not just Clooney, but the product idea in excellent quality, the exclusive and perfectly styled stores and only then comes Clooney, who is presented as a minor matter but fits well with coffee. Nestlé can also afford such a campaign financially. To prevent the advertising message from being received negatively and inappropriately, it takes much more tact than simply copying something successful. In the next issue, you can read three more theories about the origins of bad advertising.

My dish of the week was mashed potatoes with olive oil, a quail egg and tartufi on top at Ristorante Il Cantuccio in Arezzo.