Advertising is a very interesting topic for almost everyone, and there are so many things involved in a good advertising campaign that it becomes an important part of our lives. But not every advertising campaign has always delivered a good outcome and, as a business owner, you must understand the risks of going public with an ad, especially if it is somehow controversial. Ad agencies in Orange County and all over the world have had their share of mishaps. You need to play it safe and consider various scenarios and be prepared for them.
We want to share with you some very interesting examples of ads going wrong.
- From plain, simple and unattractive ads to extremely controversial advertising results, advertising going wrong can happen across the whole spectrum. The most disastrous examples are those whose creators thought they were very smart – but were, in fact, very foolish!
- Trying to hide a double meaning ad is something that I would strongly advise you to avoid. This includes ads that are the cause of blushing to say the least, but they were presented as they were and one couldn’t argue about the intention of the creators. Some of these advertising campaigns can only make you wonder what the account manager was thinking when the ad was authorized. It is better to stay away from the suggestive, “sexy” ads unless your store has this specific type of target market.
- Another terrible mistake is to try to scare people into purchasing your product, or make light of very serious issues. One example of this was a particular brand of cars that had an advertising campaign about not being able to commit suicide in one of their cars because they were so safe. Appalling! Where was the oversight on that “creative team”?
In this area, there are some specific moments where negative elements might help your advertising campaign, some lawyers or insurance companies may use this approach, but, in general, people try to avoid negative messages, consciously or subconsciously. This, therefore, is another “creative” side that you should avoid.
- Last, but not least, try to stay away from minimizing any conflict or incident that has to do with political ideas or that involve people’s lives or lifestyles. You will never win here; some will support you and some will decry you for it. Go to a neutral zone where you can serve each group no matter their political ideas, health, state of mind, gender, religion, sexuality, or beliefs.
If you want to have an amazing, risk-free, clever and very effective ad campaign done by professionals, give us a call today at Twelve12 – we are a leader among the very best ad agencies in Orange County.