How stupid do advertisers think consumers are?
If I had been Moses, I would have made ten additional special commandments about the advertising of goods, services and cult worlds back then. By Theophil Butz
These advertising communication commandments "What are the deadly sins or how to get to advertising heaven?" is what I am trying to describe here.
1st Commandment: Thou shalt not intellectually underestimate thy target audience. A dog can immediately tell if you're scared of it, if you think it's stupid, or if you're being honest. That's also how consumers work towards advertisers. So don't think anyone is stupid.
2nd commandment: You shall not exaggerate. Staying cool and scoring points with it would be the goal. Anyone who advertises the cheapest and best offer as a piggy bank, a fox, a red pen, or a claimant will not be blindly believed. As Media Markt says, he's not bl... What do you fi nd
3rd commandment: You shall repeat a joke no more than three times. Unless he's as good as when Chaplin takes the medals from Goering in The Great Dictator. Also some funny punchlines from the commercials can be repeated more often. But the opposite is unfortunately much more often the case. I will tell times in another column exclusively bad punch lines. E.g. how Peter in the Zalando commercial complains about the many young men dying of excitement. Gaga.
4th commandment: Do not pack more than one message in your advertising message. 80 percent of the posters, which can only convey a one-second message, are peppered with three to seven messages. Here is another example. If you throw five tennis balls at the Federer and say "catch!", then the Federer cannot say "roger". On the other hand, your opponent will be able to catch a single ball that is not even thrown precisely.
5th commandment: Don't get paid badly for your serious work. The sin of participating in a competitive presentation for free also falls under this commandment. It is also important not to propose a solution to the client before five working days. A briefing with an idea presentation that does not lead to an ideal advertising solution - as is usually the case - should not be pursued out of niceness. Stop designing superficial, boring and thus unsuccessful advertising for financial reasons. My idea of acting as Moses actually makes sense. Maybe an advertising bible will come out of it one day. Now already arrived at the 5th commandment, I have only about 400 strokes good. So the 6th commandment follows. I will add the other four commandments in the next issue.
6th Commandment: You shall not spend money unnecessarily. It may sound complicated, but it's not. Spending money unnecessarily means throwing advertising next to mailboxes, broadcasting boring TV commercials unnecessarily often, hanging a 30,000-franc super poster in the train station that no one pays attention to. To be continued in the next advertising week. My upbeat is that I have quit smoking and survived this column without relapsing.
Theophil Butz, graphic designer, advertising agency owner, inspirer and, for the last three years, also mothballs for Werbewoche readers. Please send any relevant information to [email protected]
