Can Old Pasadena Handle Halloween? And Howl!

Yes, this year Old Pasadena is not just out to celebrate Halloween, but to make this year’s Halloween celebration the best ever. For kids of course, that’s a simple task indeed. It’s one of the highest of the high holy days in kid-dom: The day of candyCandyCANDYCANDY CANDY! But for parents, especially in this economy, it can be a bit of a trial. Especially this year when Halloween falls on a weekend. How do you handle keeping the kids entertained, for two days, on a budget? That’s where Old Pasadena comes in. First create an event that makes both days really special, then let everyone know about it – with an advertising budget that is tiny at best.

Old Pasadena Home Page featuring the Halloween Celebration

First, and most important, to make any event work you have to make it special.

Kershona Mayo, our Director of Event Marketing & Production, worked hard to organize a district wide, Halloween celebration filled with treats on both Saturday and Sunday. And it’s Free! The focus is on fun and safe, with the emphasis on fun, encompassing activities throughout Old Pasadena.

On Saturday, October 30, Old Pasadena takes over Central Park, 260 S. Raymond Avenue. There’ll be Free caramel apples for the first 200 people to arrive, then a pumpkin hunt (little pumpkins filled with candy) from 1:00-2:00 pm, and from 1:00-5:00– There’s a Halloween moon bounce accompanied by live “ghoulish” music. At the Armory Center for the Arts, just a few blocks north, they’re holding a Halloween crafts center from 1:00-5:00 pm complete with a scary animal-and-bug show and tell.

The Old Town Haunt joins in the fun with a little kid-friendly tour.

On Sunday, October 31, Old Pasadena partners with One Colorado for free store-to-store trick-or-treating along with a special Meet-and-Greet with favorite Halloween characters from 4:00-9:00 pm.  There will be free haunted photos of the kids and free screenings of Halloween cartoons in the Courtyard from 5:00-9:00. And to make even the littlest kids feel big, there will be a special youngster-friendly tour of the popular Old Town Haunt, with all the lights on and no scary screaming from12:00-4:00pm.
Pretty impressive, huh? But now that the event is in place, how do you promote it?

First of all, it’s newsworthy. So Kershona, even with limited print and absolutely no broadcast budget whatsoever, can generate millions of dollars in free airtime on TV and radio. She also fully exploits an array of social network sites from Twitter and Facebook to Yelp to generate buzz. Partnerships with our local Pasadena City College radio station KPCC, an NPR affiliate, further magnify the reach to parents.

Every participating merchant received a poster and matching postcards to hand out to customers.

Add to that select local newspaper advertising, posters all over town and free postcards for our merchants to hand out, and you have a powerful campaign indeed. Reinforcing that effort is the OPMD website. Janet Schwartz, OMPD’s Director of PR & Destination Marketing, has put not only the Old Pasadena website to work, she follows up with regular email blasts to merchants, visitors and friends of Old Pasadena. Last year, the Halloween celebration marketing effort resulted in an additional 2000 page views in the days leading up to the event.

So that’s the secret. A great event. Enthusiastic social marketing promotion. Partnerships with merchants and media outlets. And an audience of parents hungry for fun, free and safe entertainment, and of course, kids just hungry for candyCandyCANDYCANDY CANDY!

Happy Halloween everyone.

Ethics in Advertising

No, no, no. That's not a contradiction in terms!
Although I'll be the first to admit that ethics are a tad less than obligatory in political advertising, in fact, the most successful political ad campaigns avoid them altogether. But what works in political advertising, doesn't work so well with any products or services that people can touch, judge and experience immediately for themselves.
Lying in politics, however, is such a time-honored tradition that Plato spoke of it as necessary to diplomacy. Today, lying politicians are the bread and butter of comedy. Stand-up comics could not exist without them. 
Why do politicians envy ventriloquists?
    They can lie without moving their lips.
What do you call a politician who swears to tell the truth?
    A liar.
How can you tell when a politician is lying?
    His lips are moving.
The list goes on.
But something remarkable happened Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Two remarkably well marketed bundles of bamboozlery bombed at the polling booths.  Propositions 16 & 17, two corporate exercises in corporate greed, deception, half-truths, mistruths and home-spun charm, crashed and burned on impact.

Or as Greg Pruett, senior vice president of corporate affairs for PG&E reportedly explained in an article on baycitizen.org "While the election outcome hasn’t diminished our steadfast belief that citizens should have a vote in local government efforts to enter the electric utility business, we respect the decision voters made on this initiative." He failed to add that this initiative would have taken the right to majority rule away from those voters.  Ironically, if PG&E had been able to play by the rules they were pushing, their 47.5 percent of the vote would have been enough to stifle the majority’s will. Too bad.  So sad.
Surprisingly the effort that brought the $46 million PG&E juggernaut to its knees accomplished that miracle with a budget of barely $100,000. Similarly, the Mercury Insurance $16 million, attempt to reverse a 1988 consumer protection law, and allow them to manipulate premiums, was defeated with a tiny fraction of their bloated budget. So where did the corporations go wrong, or more importantly, where did the opposition go right?
First it seems the corporate troops went about a lie too far. They each used fake names, tried to hide behind populist rhetoric that they didn’t really understand, spent money like water or Meg Whitman (but I repeat myself). Then inexplicably, they defended their true goals openly in corporate stockholder documents accessible on the web. The opposition only had to point that out and make the truth even easier to find… not all that difficult in the digital “click-here” age. So even though voters (consumers) couldn’t actually touch, judge or experience products (arguments) with their own two hands, the bare facts were all-too-easy to find.
Lying is advertising is always a bad idea. That’s especially true if you have a product, and people are using it. There’s probably a reason they like it.  Which means there’s enough good to say about it, that you don’t have to lie. If you don’t believe me, ask your happier customers. And if you still feel like you have to lie, be sure to give some friends or family a box or two of crayons and construction paper to make your “Going Out of Business Sale” signs. Your competition, their customers and their lawyers will be only too happy to help.
Ethics is advertising is just good business. And... sometimes, not a bad idea in politics either.

Ready, Set, Recovery! We're pointing the way.

Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design (P-AMD) has been selected to create a new print, web and social networking campaign for the Foothill Workforce Investment Board (FWIB). FWIB provides workforce services that are invaluable in any economy and absolutely vital in today’s precarious environment. They offer a one-of-a-kind, employment lifeline that connects both sides of the workforce to what they need the most – for FREE. Until now, they have gone largely unnoticed by both the employers struggling to keep their businesses afloat, and by the great majority of unemployed desperate to find the right job. 

This is a dream project for us, because the concept essentially sells itself. Everyone wants it; everyone needs it, and it is vital to the community and the economy as a whole. The only fundamental element lacking is awareness. If prospective employees don’t know that the keys to a better life are at their fingertips, they can’t ask for them. If business owners and managers don’t know they have access to essential business survival skills and to an unparalleled pool of highly qualified talent, they can’t use them. That all of this is free isn’t even an issue. Awareness is the key, not just for now but for the long term.

As a part of this coming year’s campaign, P-AMD will create and develop a new website for the Foothill Workforce Investment Board designed to reinforce their overall marketing plan. The site will be the center of a hub of social networking sites that appeals to employers, talented potential employees, city governments, business improvement districts and chambers of commerce that stretch from Duarte to South Pasadena. 

This is not only an exciting project for all of us at P-AMD to undertake but a vital step in the revitalization of our region. A wave of recovery is coming. Nobody can tell when, but the signs are everywhere. However, the job seekers and employers of Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and South Pasadena have to be ready for the wave when it arrives if they hope to ride it. If they jump on it too early or wait too long, they’ll miss it, and recovery and prosperity could be lost altogether. 

Job seekers need to know not only how to get “a” job, but get “the” job they want and can do the best. Employers need to know that there is a viable resource, in their own backyard, where they can find sound business advice and a pool of local, highly qualified applicants at no charge. 

That is now our task, and we can hardly wait to get started.

The Branding PowerPoint (as requested)

After a very well received Branding and Positioning seminar in South Pasadena, we are posting the Powerpoint presentation. It is little more than a slide show for those who like a little side of tongue in cheek with their information. However, when I posted this on Youtube, I received a little criticism about the lack of sound. For those of you who attended the presentation (and their friends), this first video is for you... quiet though it might be.




However, I felt absolutely horrible that anyone could have felt so cheated by the lack of sound in the presentation. So I recreated it with the help of my very good friend* Boots Randolf. Please enjoy the "sound."  :-)




Who ever said Branding and Positioning can't be fun?

*Never actually met my good friend Boots Randalf, but I love him (and Yakety Sax) all the same.

BRANDING A SMALL BUSINESS

Suzanne Marks, Pasadena Advertising’s comely CEO, just gave a seminar on "Branding" to the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.  The audience members, by and large, were small business owners. They were concerned that since the big stores spend so much money on branding, they had better learn about it too.  However, branding and positioning efforts (for those who like semantic hair splitting) are usually reserved for large, impersonal corporations.  Branding is what gives the company a face: a personal connection that clients and customers can hold onto.

The business owners’ concern is understandable, as John Costello of Procter & Gamble fame once famously explained, “A brand image signifies a relationship with the customer.  It is the company’s most valuable asset.  It’s also the main differentiator, the best defense against price competition and the key to customer loyalty.  Competitors can copy your features and benefits, but they can’t steal your image.”

That said, giving a face to a small business is infinitely easier than creating a “face” for a corporation, because the business is, well, small enough to have a face built in, usually the owner's face.  The salespeople's faces.  And, the personal relationship is, more often than not, is actually personal – directly between people.  So branding techniques are ... well, simpler.  Take a shower.  Dress for work. Open your shop for business. Smile and make your customers happy.  Annnnnnnnnnd: Congratulations.  Your branding is done.

Okay, not quite. You also have to know who your prospective customers are. You have to design your store (and your signage) to appeal to them, and they have to see your appeal from across the street.

You have to pick a location where your customers would likely be and would like to be. You have to make your shop their home.  That’s all a part of your brand.  And you have to give your current customers the best product or service possible to build up the most powerful, long lasting brand advertising possible – Word of Mouth.

Then there’s that other advertising – the kind outside your store.  That's something you need to think about.  You have to be consistent and reinforce the image of your store, yourself and thereby your "brand" in everything you do. However, with the advent of social marketing, your advertising just got a whole lot cheaper.  With a web page, email, Twitter, Facebook and a blog, you can give directions, post hours, gain fans, thank old customers, entice new customers, post online coupons, showcase new products and services and reinforce your brand. And update it whenever you want.

All in all, a pretty hard working advertising medium that's worth all the work you put into it.

How do you choose a person of the Century?

Well if you're developing a fund raiser to celebrate the first century of Scouting, then first and foremost, you need an outstanding Scout.  No problem there.  You have an incredible abundance of folks to choose from. Eagle Scouts alone have become presidents, governors, war heroes, Supreme Court Justices, and astronauts including 11 of the 12 men who walked on the moon. 

So the Boy Scouts Los Angeles Area Council tried to find a person who exemplified the spirit of scouting.  Someone with a wide breadth of knowledge and experience in a variety of fields.  How better to represent the many areas of achievement rewarded by Scouting with merit badges and advancement in rank. 

The person they decided on was University of Southern California president Steven B. Sample.  As our CEO and Boy Scouts Los Angeles Area Council Board member, Suzanne Marks explained, "He best personified the variety of skills that Scouting has taught for over a hundred years.  Steven Sample is an inventor, an educator, a business leader, an author and a Boy Scout.” 

To develop her campaign, a mix of traditional and electronic media, Suzanne relied on two of her own Scouts at Pasadena Advertising, Life Scout and V.P. Creative Tony Nino, and Eagle Scout, Creative Director, David Ensz.  “I wanted a design a basic look with a balanced focus to honor Dr. Sample and also pay homage to the first century of Scouting,” explained David Ensz, “the muted earth tones were a reminder that camping is an essential part of the Scouting experience.”  “Although crimson and gold seemed to be more prominently displayed among the USC alumni,” laughed Tony Nino.

Dr. Sample is the esteemed author of the Los Angeles Times Best selling book, “The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership,” and a highly regarded professor of “The Art and Adventure of Leadership,” His extraordinary efforts in propelling academics at the University of Southern California are world-renowned; his incredible ability to generate contributions to that fine institution of higher learning has resulted in one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in the history of higher education.

Fittingly Dr. Sample’s Person of the Century celebration raised over $600,000 for Scouting in Los Angeles. In this economy, that was an achievement that more than exceeded expectations.  The Los Angeles Area Council is honored and grateful for the contributions of all our supporters.

Success doesn’t take a miracle in Old Pasadena.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit I am biased. I am a Pasadena Advertising owner and the chairman of the Old Pasadena Marketing District (OPMD). However, I’ve heard more than my share of comments about Old Pasadena leading a charmed life, and I think it’s time for a little reality check.
Times are hard, and doing business anywhere is a challenge, but as far as Old Pasadena is concerned, the rumors of the economy getting better seem to be true. Like anywhere else, to take full advantage of that, you not only have to work harder, you have to work smarter, and in Old Pas, we also work together. Cooperation is what gave Old Pasadena its start in the late ‘80s, and it’s what is keeping us ahead of the curve today.
This was a very good Holiday season for our 22-block district. Even though we don’t have all the figures in from all the stores, we can see that our garages were consistently at full capacity, unique visitors to our web site nearly doubled from last year, and merchants have come to us with thanks and stories.

Marci Christianson, proprietor of LulaMae, an award-winning Old Pasadena gift boutique saw a dramatic increase in profits over last year. She is not only a smart merchant but also an active marketer. Since OPMD research had predicted that virtually all our customers would be spending less, she changed her product line to take full advantage the situation. To attract more customers, she participated in all our holiday events beginning with the Halloween, Trick’’n’’Treat weekend. To maximize her visibility with limited ad funds, she developed a web site as fun and quirky as her store. She linked it to the OPMD site, offered on-line coupons from both sites, then gave the coupon discount to all her customers, whether they knew about them or not. “I see the look in their eyes when they get the added discount. I know they’ll visit my site now, and they’ll come back to the store.”

Andrea Auman, owner of Crowned Studio salon not only experienced a 35% increase in business, she did it overcoming an additional challenge. In the middle of the worst recession in anyone’s memory, she decided to move and start up her business all over again. “It was the best possiblee timing as far as I was concerned, “she remarks, “I knew my best customers would follow me, and with Pasadena rents at an all time low, I knew I could find a great place in a great city." Andrea not only took full advantage of the OPMD web connections and events to bring in customers, she started up networking and cross-promotional events of her own. To maximize her electronic presence Andrea links to her partners and fellow merchants from her home page and maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts and a blog.
As diverse, and sometimes eccentric, as the merchants of Old Pasadena are, all of our success stories share this aspect of working harder, working smarter and working together. No magic potions (that we know of), no lucky Leprechauns, and no behind-the-scenes buyouts or bailouts have been employed to give us the upper hand. Just Good research, good marketing and good business. The Old Pasadena Management District is proud to be the hub of this activity, and is working hard to keep giving our merchants and business owners ahead of the game.

What a Ride!

Sunday the 22nd, offered up a beautiful morning for a bike ride.  The air was clear and crisp.  The traffic was light.  The weather, gorgeous.  It felt good to be on the road.  Not to mention that at the end of the ride, I would get to see our billboard for the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension.

The Foothill Extension, a section of light rail line bogged down in a bureaucratic morass for over six years, had finally gotten the go ahead. It had taken a lot of work and a lot of patience.  The Foothill Extension Authority, mayors, communities up and down the foothills, and their allies had put in countless hours to make this dream a reality.  Finally, the long-neglected San Gabriel Valley was about to get some relief from hours of infuriating, congestion-clogged freeways. Our agency had played a small role in those battles for relief, and had helped people in the valley make their voices heard.
Now Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design had been chosen to make the long-awaited news public with a series of six billboards. We backed the boards up with souvenir packets of postcards featuring the artwork for each station’s billboards.

We designed one board for each of the six new locations along the route featuring architectural renderings of the site.  The first to get it’s own board was the Monrovia station.
When I got to the site, the board sat all alone at the south end of a sprawling, virtually empty parking lot.  The day before, the lot had been packed with people and politicians, reporters and dignitaries. Some were there to celebrate the prospect of relief from years of unyielding, bumper-to-bumper rush hours.  Others were there to finally claim their role in a hard fought victory over substantial odds.  Some were there to weasel out a little credit for which they had no right whatsoever. But, that’s politics.
I liked visiting the empty lot a whole lot better.
Off to the south east side of the lot, I saw the long forgotten Monrovia rail station that I had first seen over a decade ago, as it was being closed down and boarded up. Now it would have a second chance at life as a part of the new Monrovia Gold Line station complex.  That made this one little victory all that much sweeter.

I can’t wait to see it restored, and I’m sure there are more than a few long-time Monrovia residents who will rejoice to see it come back into use again. 
Every once in a while, advertising benefits people and whole communities. This is one of those times.  We in Pasadena only played a small role in this battle, but once we had been invited to join in the fight, we hung on for the whole ride.
I couldn’t be prouder of the end result.
________________________

This is the first of two entries in my blog about a month that has been both exhausting and exhilarating. Being a part of the advertising effort in the Foothill Extension fight allowed our agency to make a lasting impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of San Gabriel Valley residents. Advertisers are rarely offered that kind of chance, but after six years of wrangling, we have finally gotten a glimpse of a future we helped create.
Advertising is widely perceived as fun, and much of the time it is.  And challenging, which it also is.  And frustrating, which it is more often than any of us would care to admit. Yet very rarely, it can be deeply meaningful and rewarding.  In the last few weeks, we have been lucky enough to have two such moments. This was only the first.

NEVER say “Yes” to a stranger.

While this is not exactly about advertising or marketing, it does revolve around honesty in communication. Yesterday, I wasted an entire afternoon arguing with aggressive, obnoxious phone agents, all because one of my employees answered a question, “yes.” Avoid that, and you can save hours of hassles and/or hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

Before I begin, check your last phone bill.  Really.  Do it now.  Right now.  Seriously.  Specifically page 6 or 7, listed under “OEM charges."  I’ll wait. See that charge for $40? That’s bogus.  You never authorized it. 
 

Yet, there it is.  Right there on your phone bill, and it’s probably been there for months.  Just a small enough charge that you wouldn’t notice it at first, yet substantial enough to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges from unsuspecting customers.

Lemme ‘splain.

Let’s say someone calls you one day (or has already called you) to “check on your address,” or ”update their directory” or see “who handles your phone service.” Sounds innocent enough. “Are you still at 601 main street,” the disembodied voice would ask.  “Yes,” you would answer, because, what the hell, it is your company address.  And that’s all it takes.  It’s over.  It’s done.  Congratulations you just bought into a bucket of headaches, and expensive headaches at that.  The caller probably went on with a number of Yes/No questions, because it’s less suspicious, and it provides them with a variety of intonations that they can use later.
“Use how?” Glad you asked.
They record your “yes.”  And then they concoct a completely different conversation, record it and cast you as the star.  Their recording is of a sales call.  They insert your “yes” as proof of your authorization to charge you.  They will even play it back to you should you call to complain about a service you never ordered.  Their version of the call may sound something like this. 

"Hi I’m calling from (for instance) More YellowPages Online, and AT&T has authorized us to provide your company with added visibility online.  Are you authorized to make decisions about your phone service?
[Your voice] Yes.
For only $40 a month we can promote your company to web visitors around the world. Are you interested?
[Your voice] Yes.
Are you authorized to approve this charge?
[Your voice] Yes.
Congratulations.  You have made a wise investment. Starting this month, we will charge your AT&T account for $40.00 per month.  Do you understand?
[Your voice] Yes.
And you approve?
[Your voice] Yes.
Thank you very much."
They could have just as easily asked.
"Will you please bend over and grab your ankles.
[Your voice] Yes.
You understand, we will not either pull your hair or kiss you.
[Your voice] Yes.
Good bye."
Doesn’t that sound vaguely like fraud? Flagrant fraud? That’s because it is. And it is well known.  If you were to Google “More YellowPages Online scam,” you would get 550,000 results, many of which you will recognize as your own experience.

Of course, if you have a couple of hours to spare, you can get all the charges reversed.  But the hope of these online thieves is that you will not notice. 
How do you avoid it.  Simple, hang up.  Or if you have time and want to have fun with them, answer their questions precisely without using the word “Yes.”
"Is this your address?
It is.
Is this your phone number?
My phone number is correct.
Is this your company?
That is the name my company does business by."
(or just keep giving them your web address… they hate that)
Save money.  Save time.  Save headaches.  Save “yeses” for people you know.
Say “No” to fraud.
Never say “yes” to a stranger.

Just because you yell, don’t mean I have to listen.

Dear broadcaster advertisers,
First of all, let me say I love broadcast advertising. I am especially fond of radio, because I can tap directly into the imagination of the listener. If I want to hold a world premiere with a cast of thousands on someone’s lawn, I can. With no need for "extras" or special effects.

Of course, even on TV, if I need to resurrect the dead to be my spokes-king, it’s not a problem. Broadcast advertising can be fun.

But really? Yelling, screaming, cranking up the volume? It’s not just annoying. It doesn’t really work that well, and it could work against you.
Anyone who has ever had children is already aware of this. Yelling doesn’t mean they hear you. In fact, with children of all ages, yelling seems to reduce their ability to hear exponentially. The louder you yell, the less they hear. Apparently, however, there are an overwhelming number of broadcast advertisers who either never had children, or are inexplicably unaware of this fact.
When programs pause to go into commercial, the volume seems to leap into the stratosphere. How many times have you been caught unaware when a commercial blared out, and you lunged for the remote to seek relief? We have all, at one time or another, said, “Thank God for the MUTE button,” but still the practice goes on. Is it possible, that someone has kept the existence of this sanity-saving button a secret from these advertisers? And if not why do they keep doing it?
I think there are two answers. Technology and desperation. While there are standards and practices in place prohibiting precipitous bumps in volume, recording engineers long ago figured out how to get around them. They just “equalize” the volume across all every available frequency, so that without violating any guidelines they can create a “wall of sound” without raising the volume. And as we all know, if you can do something, you do it.
The second component is desperation. “I want to sell this now. Right now. Right this twisty-legged second, and nobody’s gonna stop me.” The reason desperation works, is that motivated buyers sense the desperation like sharks sense blood in the water, and they pounce. It works so well, that some advertisers feign desperation, Crazy Gideon comes to mind.
But desperation only goes so far. Screaming ads rarely scream “quality.” And if your customers are not in the market to buy, or short of cash, or a bit desperate themselves, they don’t need to hear that. And they don’t have to.They turn it off and take a deep breath. Just like you do. The ads you like, listen to, or even look forward to, bear the product names that get under your skin and lie in wait until you are ready to buy. Those are the names that rise to the top of your mind or the tip of your tongue whenever you need them. No screaming necessary.
Now consumers have even more weapons in their arsenal to fight screaming (the infamous “mute” button, the DVR “skip” and “fast forward” buttons, and on-line viewing), so screamers not only don’t have to be heard, they don’t have to be seen.
Of course, if all you want to be is unseen and unheard, you can save a bundle on advertising!

Love, Tony

Stupid, Ugly, Stinky, Nasty, Dirty, Poopy, Words!

In Kindergarten we were all carefully taught not to use bad words. Negative was bad, bad, bad. Positive was good. But as every advertiser knows, nobody in Kindergarten has to move products.
I will be the first to admit that negative advertising works. Anyone who ever saw Clarke Gable in “The Huxters,’ has to remember Sidney Greenstreet hawking up a juicy wad of mucus onto a conference table. As he wipes the table with his handkerchief, he explains that although what he did was disgusting, nobody at the table will ever forget it. It’s been 40 years since I saw the movie, so I tend to agree.
But just in case there was any doubt about the effectiveness of negative advertising, the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience did a study which “demonstrates conclusively” that “information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.” However the Institute didn’t investigate what the effect of wildly overbearing, disturbing advertising might have on a brand.
The Republican party is currently experimenting with pushing the limits of negativity and adding the dubious element of easily-debunked, outright lies and occasional looney toon allegations of the coming of the antichrist. While a hardcore minority of Americans is desperately trying to believe, the brand is suffering mightily.
Not that the Democrats oddly disjointed muddle of “positive” messages is faring much better. There is no central theme or lattice of reinforcement to support a single unified brand. But this is not new. As Will Rogers said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!" At least the party is not making itself look ridiculous.
Negative advertising can of course be very, very good. And can be good for the brand. Apple ads come to mind, Justin Long & John Hodgeman are hilarious in the “I’m a Mac” ads. And in case no one noticed, they are blatantly ANTI PC. Brilliantly negative. And the PC campaign in response is as unfocused and mushy as the Democrats’ lame efforts to win credibility.
So, it’s not really a matter of negative or positive words and pictures, it’s the eternal quest for meaningful, memorable and effective. As ever, it is a simple choice of Badvertising versus good. Stupid versus smart.
If you’re going to go negative, be smart. And, apparently, if you’re going to go positive, be smarter.