Before the staff here at WIF take a much needed vacation for the rest of the week, we leave you with this advertisement from Burger King which has all the ad world a-buzz. Predictably, we side with clever over smart or effective or even useful, so the fact that BK would be so bold as to say McDonald’s has a good sandwich and we’ve stolen it has everyone in the ad world absolutely titillated. Well, most people. Some question the message this sends to kids about stealing being okay, but the bigger issue is this: the ad is TOTALLY RIDDICULOUSLY STUPID! The message being that one disgusting sausage egg sandwich is as good as the next, which essentially is telling consumers, go to whatever fast food restaurant is most convenient for your artery clogging breakfast, they’re all the same.
If it’s all the same, why not just NOT ADVERTISE in the first place? If the ad drives equal traffic to you and your competitor (which is the logical take-away from the ad if one considers it, which hopefully no one but me will), what’s the damn point? I mean, is being clever really worth the millions of dollars cleverness costs?
Well, yes, if you’re an ad agency looking to win an award. It must be CLIO season already.
I went from there to here, somehow:
http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/02/19/freaky_dominos_ad_roundup
…and had to muffle my laughter in a pillow so as not to wake the boyfriend. The rapping pasta one is just TOO HORRIFYING.
Oh man, I think I worked at the agency that did those ads (albeit in our NY offices, not LA). So, so, so terrible.