Ah, advertising. The 1930s performer Will Rogers famously referred to it as "the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need."
But that time-honored tradition can easily run afoul of the other mandate of the modern advertiser: to amp up the imagery, language or overall shock value of an ad to get your client's product to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Lately, the clash of these central directives has generated a lot of buzz for some major ad clients — just not the kind that they were hoping for.
Burger King's "The King's Gone Crazy" campaign
The ad in question features BK's trademark king running frantically through an office building, apparently as an escaped mental patient, pursued by a man dressed in a white lab coat who yells, "Stop that King, he's crazy!"
The runaway King proceeds to run through the glass window of a break room to hand a burger over to a woman standing next to a microwave. Then two bow-tied men materialize and subdue him — the clear implication being that they are attendants from a mental hospital. They tell the shocked woman holding the burger that "this King's insane" for giving away "so much beef for $3.99." Smitten with the low price, she replies to one of the attendants, "you're the one who's nuts." You can watch the spot here:
Once the ad aired, it drew outraged protests from mental health advocates. Michael Fitzpatrick, the executive director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told the Washington Post that he found the ad "blatantly offensive," saying that he was "absolutely stunned and appalled" when he saw it.
Some have pointed out that the ad — which recently ended its scheduled run — was reminiscent of the old "Crazy Eddie" discount electronics store ads that ran in the Northeast for a number of years. The real Crazy Eddie, a man by the name of Eddie Antar, spent a number of years in prison on fraud-related charges. The cheap-burger-slinging King remains on the right side of the law, so far as we know.
Nike's Tiger Woods comeback ads
By now you've probably seen the commercial Nike started running last week in conjunction with Tiger Woods' return to the golf circuit, and there's a good chance you found it creepy. The ad featured a sorrowful-looking Woods staring into the camera, accompanied by a voiceover of his deceased father, Earl Woods. The spot made it appear as though the superstar golfer's dad was giving him a good talking-to from beyond the grave.
"I want to find out what your thinking was," Earl Woods is heard to say. "I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?"
The ad sparked an immediate backlash, from both the public at large and industry professionals. One ad executive blasted it as a "deeply manipulative" attempt by Nike to kickstart merchandise sales, a "vile economic rescue mission" as he put it. Worse, the ad's format — a voiceover played atop a static shot of a nonspeaking human — made it easy for Internet muckrakers to insert their own audio clips into the video and unleash a slew of parodies, which wound up being more popular than the ad itself.
And if all that weren't enough, it turns out that the audio of Tiger's father was taken from a scene in a documentary in which Earl Woods is discussing his relationship with the disgraced golfer's mother. When Tiger Woods was approached about the controversy surrounding the ad during his return to competitive golf at the Master's Tournament last week, he defended it by saying, "I think that's what my dad would say. ... It's amazing how it — how my dad can speak to me from different ways, even when he's long gone."
POM's "Cheat Death" campaign
You may have heard something in the last few years about pomegranate juice helping you live a longer, healthier life. In the event you haven't, POM Wonderful, a company that harvests, packages and markets the antioxidant-laced beverage, is going the extra mile to make sure that you do.
A recent outdoor print-ad campaign by the company in the Chicago area featured a bottle of the juice with a hangman's noose draped over the neck of the bottle. Next to the image were the words, "Cheat Death," a not-so-subtle implication that drinking POM Wonderful will help you elude the Grim Reaper's clammy grasp.
The company recently pulled the ads after Chicagoans complained that it conjured up all sorts of unpleasant memories of lynchings and executions. But according to one advertising insider, POM is an old hand at death-themed come-ons, so don't be surprised if you see similar campaigns from them in the future.
