Last week MAA ace writer, Emma Hall, introduced us to her piece on the ever increasing show biz influence on the ad biz with this gem… “It’s not only AI that advertising agencies needs to worry about. The whole world of brands, personalities and sponsorship’s is building momentum and leaving the humble broadcast ad looking harder and harder to get excited about.” Not to mention the increasingly humongous amounts of money being shelled out to sign up these “Brand Ambassadors.” Who often have little relationship with the brand’s heritage and value.
For example, next years Super Bowl will feature for the third year running, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck trousering in excess of twenty million dollars for sixty seconds of work for “Dunkin” (Since Donuts was dropped from the name, are the police forces of America going without their complimentary breakfasts?)
Right now, here in the US we are being subjected to a TV campaign for Jardiance, a prescription drug used to slow the progression of chronic kidney disease. With Brand Ambassador, Usain Bolt, festooned in his numerous Olympic Gold Medals explaining to us in fractured English that even though he is the world’s fastest man: sometimes slowing down is good. This is then followed by several minutes of legal disclaimers advising that the hundreds of side effects caused by this miracle drug may include everything from baldness to impotence to causing your wooden leg to catch fire.
The clincher is when, for yet more legal reasons, Usain is forced to explain to us that he, himself, is not suffering from any condition of kidney disease. He’s just annoying us for the money!
As Emma so succinctly wraps it up… The advertising industry can only hope that this year’s crop of Christmas ads will make the case for brands cultivating their own voices rather than other people’s. Good luck with that Emma.
