Monday, August 18, 2008

Duh, I Can Advertise Reel Guhd

Today on the tram I was seated next to an unremarkable looking guy around my own age who was scribbling onto a notepad. Bored, I spied on his scribblings. He had written:

PINEAPPLE CHUPA CHUP

Then he'd painstakingly drawn an artsy box, inside which he'd written:

FRUITY EXPERIENCE

I surmised he was in advertising. I further surmised that he was on-track to make a shithouse ad.

For the next 10 minutes or so the scribbler failed to add anything further to these two basic elements, but traced thoughtfully around the edges of the box, emboldening its lines (but not its sentiment). Then he caught me looking at him and most likely smirking, and he wisely angled his notepad out of my line of sight.

I can't wait to see the ad for Pineapple Chupa Chups when it hits the streets. I can't help but wonder, with my political incorrectness in full force, whether it will be flamboyantly marketed at homosexuals? Or whether it will simply try to distinguish itself from the other Chupa Chups by virtue of being, um, fruity. I also can't help but wonder what this guy gets paid...

5 comments:

Mel said...

Although, "fruity experience" is a bit shit, it seems rather harsh to condemn this dude and scoff about his salary, based on one line he doodled on the tram. I mean, ideas don't leap out of our brains perfect and fully formed. It takes time - sometimes even more than 10 minutes!!!!! - to get past that first lame go.

Save your scorn for an actual ad.

Natasha said...

I didn't condemn him - just his brainstorming that I witnessed. Whether or not I scorn the ad when I see it is distinct from my scorn of that 10 min moment I observed. I'm aware that this wasn't the end product of his brainstorming. Nevertheless, the visions it conjured for me of an ad for a specific chupa chup flavour that hinged on its 'fruity experience' seemed to me ridiculous at best and obvious at worst, and I found this funny.

And I legitimately wonder what this kind of role gets paid, I really do.

Unknown said...

some of my best friends work in advertising....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

ah. i LOVE sending them that link.

r

nat said...

Scorn away Tashles!

Was he brainstorming? Or was he blue-skying it. Maybe he was running it up the flag pole and seeing what would stick.
I suggest he go back to the drawing board, reconvene with the key stakeholders and conduct an idea furnace. get some quick wins by picking the low hanging fruit and drive it home with stakeholder-wide buy-in!

My take on it...
Pineapple chuppa chups - fruitier than a pack of fags and a gaytime!

oh i better go and meet you for dinner...

Mel said...

Jesus Tash, we have all had shit ideas, and maybe even written them down on the tram. What I'm suggesting is that shit ideas are part of the process of coming up with good ideas.

Fair enough if you just thought the shit idea was funny, but what got my hackles up was the idea of condemning someone simply because they perhaps - you don't even know for sure - work in advertising.

I had this argument with Reuben on M+N once - he is such a fucking snob about the ad industry. Rather than saying "that is a bad ad", he would say, "that is bad because it is an ad." I don't want to get into this argument again because it made me so upset the last time, and also because seemingly everyone else is so satisfied with their notion of the 'socially worthless advertising industry'.