I Still Hate These Billboards!

Remember how I hated this billboard?

Well, that old post got a pointed comment last week that I thought was worth highlighting. Here's what the commenter had to say:

The irony is, of course, is that you actually had enough of an emotional reaction to the billboard to take a picture of it and write about it. Indifference is the worst possible outcome for any advertising campaign. All you've done is amplify the power of their ad buy.

The commenter's guiding idea here is the old maxim that "any publicity is good publicity." Like a lot of old maxims, however, there is not a lot of connection between this one and the real world. Short of people who make their living by positioning themselves as "extreme" -- punk rock musicians, say, or members of the Oklahoma Congressional delegation -- bad publicity is generally just bad publicity. Ask anyone at Arthur Anderson or Bear Stearns, for instance, how much all that free publicity helped.

The idea that I "amplified the power of the ad buy" implies that some of you gentle readers jumped ship to a new financial institution on account of how I pointed out that its marketing campaign stinks. Anyone? No?

Really, my guess is that the good folks down at the credit union would be horrified to realize how negative an impression their ad campaign is making. Actually, no. My guess is that most of the folks at the credit union are already embarrassed about the ad campaign, but that the clueless suits who are paying for it would be horrified. I thought about sending them a letter, but people always get mad at me when I try to be helpful like that.

The problem, Commenter -- thanks for reading and contributing, by the way -- is that your approach accidentally advocates passive acceptance of advertising messages. A logical extension of the just-ignore-it argument would be "don't talk about advertising with children; you'll just call their attention to it." That doesn't work. Advertising, perhaps more than anything else, is richly in need of conscious attention and active critique. If something stinks in the room, it's usually a good idea to talk about it.

That being said, let me tell you about how

I Still Hate These Billboards!

This one is next door to The Company. (Yes, that's a gang tag on a doughnut shop. I work in a classy neighborhood.)

Rewards Checking Woman was passively ecstatic and grateful; Rewards Savings Boy is active in his exhuberance. He is so happy with his bank account, he's all in your face about it. Happy Person Advertising doesn't even have a narrative, and it manages to cast people in gender roles. That's some trick.

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And this one looms over Cinemagic, on Hawthorne.

She's hot. She's winking. She's giving you the thumbs up. She wants you. She has nothing to do with personal finance. Happy Person Advertising drags its trail of slime across a perfectly respectable old movie theater.