So I've decided to start a new series on my blog where I can look back and remember cool ads from yesteryear that bring back memories. I've called it Ads From Your Childhood but of course that's a completely meaningless title because people of all ages read this blog (or so I'd like to think). I could have called it Ads From My Childhood but to be honest there are a lot of classic ads that I really like, and might want to show here, that I don't actually remember seeing as a kid so I decided to avoid that. Apologies for the lame excuse - it was either that or the dog ate my title, and seeing as I don't have a dog I thought that was too big of a risk.
Being an aspiring young advertiser who is hoping to impress people and climb the ladder of success in this industry I should probably choose Apple's 1984 commercial as the first ad to showcase here but I'm not going to, for two reasons. 1. It was before I was born - a pretty good reason I think, and 2. I actually never knew this ad existed until I was on Erasmus in Germany in 2007 and saw it there. I'm impressed by it, and appreciate the balls it took to invest so much money in an ad that was only aired once but it honestly doesn't really feature on my radar when I think of great classic ads. Maybe it should but it doesn't.
The one ad I remember most from being a kid is one that everyone knows and almost everyone loves. I was only 8 when Guinness' Anticipation ad was released so it certainly wasn't aimed at me or my friends. It definitely made an impression on us though and I remember we used to have competitions to see who could do the the best impression of the dance (which usually ended in an argument as we all thought our dance was the best one). I've been told that this was actually filmed in the basement of the studio where a Guinness ad was being shot but there was disagreement between the agency and Guinness over the ad which delayed the shoot. A bunch of the crew then apparently went off and shot this on their own and it ended up being used. I can't say for definite that this is true but the source from which I heard it is pretty trustworthy.
There's something quite timeless about the ad. I reckon if the ad were run now it would be just as successful as it was 17 years ago - a true sign of a good ad.
I'd worry about some of the ads that todays children will be looking back on in 15 or 20 years time. Take the new ad from Jacobs for their range of biscuits.
Apologies to anyone who was involved with this (a bit presumptuous to think that they'd be reading my blog?) but I just don't like it. Actually I can't stand it, not because it has totally ramped up the sex content in an ad that is targeted at a young audience, although I'm sure that offends a lot of people, but because it's cheesy, repetitive, uses a poor jingle and is completely opposite to what people expect from Jacobs. Don't get me wrong, going against people's expectations isn't always a bad thing, in fact it quite often makes for great advertising, I just think in this case it's a bad call. I'd love to see figures for how effective this campaign turns out to be, maybe they'll prove me wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns a lot of people off. (There is actually one thing I like in the ad - the DJ's headphones, I want a pair!)
Something tells me that people won't be writing about that ad in 17 years time. But hey, that's just my opinion.
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