And so, I couldn’t let the talk about Jaffa cakes and cat food slip past without talking about advertising in general.
And advertising is based on a few very simple tenets…
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The law of averages: and this is very simple…for example, if you show a product to 100 people, roughly ten of them will buy it. Imagine the potential of that when t.v. came along!
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People will not question what they are being told
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And if they do, they are too stupid to question further when a counter-argument is presented.
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People are not really listening to what they’re being told.
There are some other factors, but on the whole, the ones above just about cover it.
Another factor would be this: companies don’t always present the whole picture.
Take lemons and limes: citrus fruit. Excellent in margheritas, the occasional gin and tonic, they prevent scurvy and they’re also good for cleaning.
Take gasoline: makes your car go and modern marketing will talk about “cleaner” gasolines, but not about the fact that it’s also good in a Molotov Cocktail and very effective as an aid to arson if poured through someone’s letterbox followed by a lighted match! Likewise, Lever Brothers don’t exactly go out of their way to tell you about mixing their washing up liquid with the aforementioned petroleum gas.
We are told that 8 out of 10 cats prefer Kite-Kat. This is all well and good, but they don’t tell you what the cats prefer it to. So picture this: ten cats are fed some horrific concoction of slop and also fed Kite-Kat. Eight of them prefer it, because two of them are scrawny alley cats who don’t really care either way and will eat whatever comes their way.
Similarly, eight out of ten dentists recommend Colgate because two of them have a bit of dignity and wouldn’t endorse it when the man from Colgate-Palmolive came knocking with a proposition and a cheque; or else the cheque wasn’t big enough!
Sportsmen have endorsed athletic products for ages now and in my mind, they deserve it: it’s a beneficial side-effect of the commitment and hard work they have put into their profession.
So think then, when all that goes a little bit awry…a high profile athlete has been caught taking certain illicit additives. And there is no better confluence of shame and good advertising which comes to mind than that of Ben Johnson and his shoe people Diadora in 1988.
Diadora are an Italian athletic apparel company and Ben Johnson was one of their high-profile endorsers when he tested positive for using horse steroids after setting a world record for 100m at the 1988 Olympics. And the great thing here is the outcry which arose when Diadora continued to market their shoes based on the world record: “You can’t do that!” the people said, “The world record is tainted! The man cheated!” And Diadora said, “We can do that. The man was taking the drugs, not the shoes. The Shoes did the business; they covered 100m faster than any shoe in history!” Very clever, very Italian and it’s own moral too: Don’t confuse shame with inanimate footwear, or talent with technology.
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not anti-advertising; some advertising is hugely entertaining in itself – it may not have an effect on me, but that’s beside the point- I’m more immune to it’s vagaries than most, perhaps. Nor am I saying that some companies don’t have a good product to put across…I fly British Airways if I’m going long-haul - they have a great product. They also market it well.
So when you’re next watching an ad on t.v., listen to what’s being said and listen to what’s not being said and make your choice because the law of averages works both ways: for every hundred or so ads you watch and listen to, in only ten or so, will you actually hear anything of any worth!
