Advertising.....at it's Worst!

"Over the line? You're so far past the line that you can't even see the line. The Line is a Dot to you!" ...... Joey (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) to Chandler when Chandler was trying to apologize by saying how he realized that he had gone over the line.

Well, this could be said to another set of people too :-)

I recently read this article in ‘Advertising Age’ about a particular viral ad on air for the Extended Stay Hotels (ESH). I couldn't wait to come back to my room and check the ad myself. You know how ads are supposed to be Attractive? Yeah … that’s the word…. ‘ATTRACTIVE’ = Interesting & hence, Rememberable, for the featured product/brand/….

I guess the creative team at Mullen, Winston-Salem didn’t quite get that link. As per one of their creative pieces for the ESH, an ad should be just Rememberable……by hook or by crook. So, when they were at there ridiculous best, they designed this ad where a pretty brainless lass enters an ESH room, heads straight for the sink and cutlery area, opens the drawer and picks up a spoon. She takes a keen look at it and….. Golly…..she licks it, front and back and?????? You tell me what next!
Yeah she keeps it back, from where she had picked it.
Yukkkk!

Then she moves around the room, licks everything that she could lay her hands on. No one has spoken anything yet in the ad.
To the horror of people who are still watching the ad, she enters the bathroom. Yes…she does! She licks the bath curtain, looks naughtily at the camera and starts licking the toilet seat and bowl. The ad ends when she looks, very happily at the camera and says “Very Clean!” Next she displays her palm to us where we read “extstay.com”.
I said, “What????”

So, these “creative” bunch of people went over the line [Yes creative in QUOTES ….. if whoever makes an ad is supposed to be tagged as creative; I’d tag them Stupid, and so Stupid that they didn’t realize that they should’ve buried this shameful evidence of their bizarre heads, as soon as they had seen what they had made]! How could they make it, and how could the ESH group buy it and, worse still, Air it?

The ad is on the internet; no background music or fancy backdrop. The idea was probably to make it look original, aiming to give the audience a feel of the cutting edge ‘Word of Mouth’ impact. Yeah they have done their home-works in reading ‘what’s IN’, but have happily chucked out ‘what’s Sensible’.

People would hate this ad so much, that they’d remember ESH alright, but whenever they do, even when they’re trying to pick one hotel, they’d wince at the gross display of licked stuffs….EVERYWHERE at ESH. Who’d buy them?