Der Motz vom Butz: Reasons why there is bad advertising; Chapter 3
From his almost 50 years of advertising experience, Theophil Butz has attempted to describe the reasons for the emergence of bad advertising in several theories. Third and final part.
Theory G: One of the most suitable advertising deterioration methods is to change the advertising campaign. I have often heard myself that after two years, the client demands a new advertising campaign. "We've all seen enough of that," he said. He worked on his campaign every day. It even adorned his office walls. It was clear that he had seen enough. However, the target audience only had contact with the 10 million advertising budget for a few seconds about ten times over two years. In addition, the consumer has seen up to 1000 advertising messages every day. So of course it is important to be present continuously for 20 or 30 years with advertising that gets under the skin and into the memory. Those who grew up in my generation can certainly still remember the HB cigarette TV commercials: "Why go up in the air right away, just reach for HB and everything will go by itself." Or "The scent of the big, wide world by Peter Styvesant". Not forgetting "Marlboro Country", the "purple cow" and the "Lovely milk cow". All advertising messages that have been preached to us for 30 years and more. And with great success. That's why they're still stuck in our minds today. So stop zapping.
Theory H: Anyone can invent, design and write advertising. The computer age has given this nonsense an extreme boost. When it comes to typography, hardly anyone today has any idea what spationing, weft, indentation, small caps, white space, slurs or dashes mean. Even trained graphic designers or polygraphers disregard every rule of the art. As a result, most advertising looks like shit. Not to mention e-newsletters and flyers. Some of what is then written is getting closer and closer to SMS jargon. An advertising idea is not only an idea when it is realized, but only when the addressee recognizes it as an advertising idea. A lot of advertising does not contain an idea because it is not recognized. Jekami is one of the reasons for bad advertising.
With this three-part column (Chapter 1, Chapter 2) tried to find out what the reasons could be for throwing so much advertising money out of the window. One of the reasons I haven't mentioned here is the money saved on creation and realization. It's true: What costs little is usually worth little. Why does nobody make 75-page ads for the 75th anniversary (BMW) anymore? Why doesn't anyone make 1700 unique ads for a bitters anymore? Why doesn't anyone do good advertising with the same agency for 25 years (Swissair)? Unfortunately, our father Paul Gredinger, who influenced, promoted and supported these and many other quirky and original advertising ideas, has just died. Sadly, another good friend from the days of creative advertising passed away shortly afterwards. Farewell Gebi Schregenberger. In memory of you, there is no stand-up of the week today.
Theophil Butzgraphic designer, advertising agency owner, inspirer and, for more than two and a half years, also a mocker for Werbewoche readers. Please send any relevant information to theophil(at)undbutz.ch.
