[col-sect][column]

Why is this ad ineffective? Sound familiar? Yes, just like the previous post, it relies on a mental hook that is only tangentially related to the real intent. The hook is the word “own.” And the intent is to associate the well known phrase “own the road” with the notion of ownership acquired in receiving a gift. Ah, so clever.

What’s wrong with it?

1. The phrase “own the road” is the freedom and power of driving pleasure of being the only guy on the road. That’s the key. Freedom. Space. Driving fast through unobstructed highways. But the images provided are totally off-message. Where’s the freedom? Where’s the wide open spaces and the flying through highway curves? The graphic is completely counter-message: we have a contained element (chunk of road) presented in a contained environment (house). Contained, not open and free. And the pleasure is not in the caressing of the asphalt, it’s in the openness of what you can do on looong stretches of it. The phrase isn’t “own three square feet of the road” – what kind of power is that? That’ll represent a split second of driving pleasure. But it’s not even presented as pleasure.. It’s a chunk of road in my arms and I’m holding it for some reason. That’s not freedom. It’s inconvenience.
[/column][column]
2. The thought of my wife picking out a car for me is just wrong. No. My car. I pick.

3. Additional unintentional negative associations are created. A filthy hunk of road is introduced to the INTERIOR of my house, its filthiness working against the associations of having a carefully kept interior and pride for my environment. It’s a disruption. Well done. And I’m receiving it as a gift. I am being sacked with this useless inconvenience. And somewhere, presumably just outside the house, there’s a massive pothole on my street. And now my wife is burdening me with it – it’s heavy and utterly useless and I will now somehow have to find a spot in the house for it. And on top of all this, I’m supposed to act excited to receive it.

Off-message associations are created by the creative team’s invented necessity to try to link up the word “own.” This trend is advertising has really got to stop. It’s so amateur. You want “own the road”? This next ad is how you show it. The car can’t compare, but at least the message is on code:
[/column][/col-sect]

Previous article:      BlackBerry Bold on AT&T ad – not so swift
Next article:     And now for something completely different: acting class