When I was at art school in New York, there was a massive billboard in Times Square that puffed out steam every ten seconds.
It was for Camel cigarettes.
It had a man’s face painted around the hole the steam came out of, so it looked like he was puffing out smoke.
Nobody thought much about it.
It was just a gimmick.
Everyone knew it was just steam.
It didn’t make anyone think “Oh my god, that is so clever, actual smoke coming from a cigarette smoker. I must find a shop and buy a pack of Camels this minute.”
Nobody thought that because that isn’t how the mind works.
So it isn’t how advertising works either.
At best, all anyone thought was “That’s an unusual gimmick, a fun way to use a steam outlet.”
Because that’s all it was, a gimmick.
It wasn’t great advertising.
I was studying advertising at the time, and no one considered the steam-billboard as serious advertising.
It was just a one-off gimmick.
And a one-off gimmick is easy to do.
Simply because it is one-off.
A single poster with a car stuck to it, a single poster with a million pounds in a glass case, a single poster with a human being stuck on it, a single poster that lights up when you go by.
Those are all one-offs.
All very nice but all one-offs, all gimmicks.
Just like a piece of one-off technology.
A single poster that you can smell, a single poster that sings, a single poster that films you, a single poster that your smart phone can see but you can’t.
Those are all very nice.
But they’re pieces of technology, gimmicks, one-offs.
Advertising at its best is clever thinking in mass media, not winning awards with the latest one-off gimmick.
Because all the latest gimmick has going for it is novelty.
When it’s brand new it might get noticed.
Probably not so much by the public.
But by the small world of advertising, and the trade magazines, because whoever owns the new media is trying hard to promote it.
So it gets talked about just because it’s new.
But you know what?
As soon as the second person uses that technology, it’s out of date.
It’s not worth writing about.
Unless it’s used in a better, more exciting way.
And then we’re back to ideas.
Then we’re back to original thinking, instead of just gimmicks.
If that Times Square steam poster had been in London, it would have won all the awards.
Everyone would have been writing articles about steam posters being the new media.
About how all other media was dead.
But in truth, real people in the real world hardly noticed it.
They’ll remember the steam outlet as Camel, just because Camel used it first.
You can see that poster in the film Midnight Cowboy.
The sequence where John Voight is in Times Square trying to hustle money as male prostitute.
It’s in there briefly, as part of a montage about how ridiculous and silly and decadent Times Square had become.
Not to demonstrate a great piece of creative thinking.
These gimmicks get talked about (along with the brand that use it). And that’s one of the things advertising is all about (increase share of voice). Though i believe original ideas are better than the novel ones.
Thanks always for the post
Toheeb - 19 September 2012 12:18 pm
Dave,
I’ve always believed in getting the facts right first
then having fun with them.
Did an ad for a steel company.
The company had a massive conveyor belt that travelled 13.5 miles from the coastline into the desert just to take Iron ore into the foundry for smelting.
Mad.
During a factory visit we saw wire being made.
***ing scary.
Back in the office I came across a simple image of a wire fence in the desert.
Dull as ditchwater.
There was the ad.
“Metalmorphosis”
Iron that goes up 13.5 miles one way, gets processed and comes back as a wire fence the other way to protect the rest of the iron ore coming up on the conveyor belt.
It never won any awards, but that’s not the point is it.
Voice in the wilderness - 20 September 2012 8:40 am
Sounds like a great story to me Kev.
Dave Trott - 20 September 2012 9:30 am
Dave – Kevin uses a nom de plume – Is that permitted?
Grilla Login - 20 September 2012 2:33 pm
I thought ‘Voice In The Wilderness’ would have appealed to you Grilla:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHWbsvgQUE
Dave Trott - 20 September 2012 4:37 pm
It does, Dave.
But tricky as I is, no one has ever referred 2 me as a Cheetah (except @ strip poker).
Grilla Login - 20 September 2012 5:25 pm
Sir
I agree with your novelty/originality comments in general. Question: the car stuck on wall – was a poster and for those, ain’t it more brand recall than an immediate sale? Thank you.
Robin. - 21 September 2012 11:16 am
Robin,
My point was that it was a one-off.
They did one poster, on one site, at one location, that’s it.
Since it wasn’t mass-media it wasn’t really advertising, it was a pr stunt.
Even though it was a very good pr stunt.
Dave Trott - 21 September 2012 11:26 am
Grilla,
This is what will happen to the world if we all consume too much too quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v29QfOyuZ3Y
Dr Quiteamess - 21 September 2012 12:27 pm
Dr Quiteamess – Do u know of any free lancers – I have a boil, c.
Grilla Login - 21 September 2012 4:54 pm
“These gimmicks get talked about (along with the brand that use it). And that’s one of the things advertising is all about”
no its not it about sales and selling
would you be happy if people where talking about your brand but not buying it?
Matt Sharper - 23 September 2012 10:37 pm
Thanks, Dave. Would you say that’s kind o’ predatory thinking? While others are doing posters, these FCO guys change the rules, with PR? Out-think instead of out-spend.
Robin. - 24 September 2012 3:03 am
Grilla,
Oh, so you want a FREE lance now do you?
IMDO, I’d suggest an 11 or 10a blade should do the trick.
Oh-and don’t forget the bathroom mirror.
Dr Quiteamess - 25 September 2012 11:14 pm
2 wipe it clean after, u mean?
Grilla Login - 27 September 2012 3:32 pm
Hi Dave
Good rant, and I agree with your general point, but as co-author of the Araldite car-on-a-poster gimmick you mention, I thought I ought to pick you up on a couple of details.
Firstly, it wasn’t a one-off on one site at one location. The poster was transported to sites in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow and, I believe, Edinburgh.
Secondly, it was supported by a regular, mass-media 48-sheet (which also got in the book).
Thirdly, it was followed up the next year by 3 consecutive posters, which took the idea a stage further.
You are right on one point, though, PR was the intention behind the whole thing. Indeed, the client got more column inches in the press than their piddly advertising budget could ever have stretched to (the client’s technicians built the gimmick themselves, by the way, using Araldite, so it cost them bugger all to put together).
Rob
Rob Kitchen - 5 October 2012 1:14 pm
Hi Rob,
My point was directed at kids nowadays more than our era.
In our day that was an unusual idea that really stood out.
So no one had a problem with it winning everything.
My problem is that nowadays kids think one-offs are all you do.
No one wants to do mass-media ideas anymore.
Your poster used PR the way Cadburys Gorilla did, and that’s exactly the right way to do it.
But look through any student portfolio nowadays and complicated one-offs are all you see.
So they’re not fresh and unusual, like yours was at the time, anymore.
Dave Trott - 5 October 2012 6:33 pm
Ah, right – I see what you mean.
Yes, those kinds of stunts are also often unconnected in any meaningful way to the product, brand or its values. A stunt for stunt’s sake, really, relying on the desperate hope that its very wackiness will mean one of the social networks will blitz it round the globe.
All too often, I’m afraid, this isn’t confined to student portfolios – so-called digital agencies are often guilty of the same thing.
Somehow or other, there no longer seems to be a brand custodian making sure everyone’s singing off the same cliche.
Instead, it now seems to be all about instant gratification/impact/fame, with little or no thought about how such a gimmick will create a lasting brand message, let alone, heaven forbid, fit in with an existing one.
I blame the clients.
Rob Kitchen - 8 October 2012 4:55 pm
You can even see similarities with the way brands try and copy their competitors in every aspect.
M&S created food porn, now if any other brand tries showing a slow-mo shot of food being cut or stabbed by a fork I instantly think of M&S.
Imitation in advertising is daft as it creates such a negative perception of your brand.
By being the first,your brand is the innovator. By even remotely copying another brand then your brand has become a sheep, a brand that has no independence and just follows like a lost teenager.
Robbie Field - 9 October 2012 12:38 pm