Cutting Off A Campaigns Legs
February 6th, 2010 | 
Author: Cutting Off A Campaigns Legs
Will we ever see longlasting ad campaigns anymore?
I once worked for a Creative Director who for every new account our agency won set about redesigning that clients logo. It was never requested by the client. But my CD just wanted to change the logo. And it was never an improvement; just an exercise in ego and a waste of the clients money.
The things that over the years have come to symbolize brands like logosand in particular taglinesare being changed to quickly and so often that its hard to keep up. Consequently no one does.
We all know how it works: Every time a new CMO comes along he/she hires a new agency. And suddenly everyone at both the client and agency feel the need to piss on the marketing landscape and mark their turf. Which means a new campaign a new tagline a new logo etc. Its change for changes sake.
It used to be a real virtue to present an ad campaign idea that has legs. Now it doesnt matter so much. Today it seems were committed to prematurely amputate any campaign that has legs. Is that a good idea?
The result of this itchy trigger finger is that campaigns consist of short bursts of marketing that dont make an lasting impact or make much sense. I recently heard an Audi radio spot with the tagline “Truth In Engineering.” Id never heard it before. What does that even mean? What it means that we’re living in The Age of Lame Taglines. Fine Audi makes good cars but Truth in Engineering? I suspect theres little truth to be had there just hyperbole. Whats worse even as a consumer I have little interest in getting Audi to explain it to me.
Taglines like all other parts of advertising are an art. And its becoming a lost art. Part of it stems from ad schools turning out students who suffer from what I call Tagline Dependency Syndrome TDS. TDS occurs when an ad makes no real sense whatsoever until you get to see hear or read the tagline which purports to explain all that came before it. So every ad in a campaign with TDS in order to work must absolutely focus on the tagline. There arent too many ads that can do this for any length of time limiting the life of the tagline and thus the shortlived campaign.
If you think taglines arent a big deal then youve obviously never had to come up with one as I have many many times. Its an assignment that inevitably devolves into a big steaming pile of crazy.
But whether its a new tagline or a new campaign the genesis is always the same. You know youre in trouble when you hear this about a current campaign: Consumers are tired of it. Bullshit. We wish consumers cared about a campaign so much theyd get tired of it. No its our industry that gets tiredthe industry where new creatives new shops and new campaigns feed the awardshow and business press beast.
Thats the problem: Its not that consumers have the short attention span. Its that creative directors and CMOs have them. And by not allowing any continuity taglines become more trite and more meaningless. Collectively customers simply dont ascribe to them any value in part because theyre so shortlived.
Its only going to get worse. As more and more interactive work comes along the only measure of success will be metrics like clickthrough rates which rarely take into account anything beyond the immediate impact of a message.
In all forms of marketing the analytics nerds are taking over in an attempt to prove once and for all what works: Lets test these 50 banner ads with these 10 different taglines and see which one works best. Good to know except that we still wont know what works over a substantial period of time just the execution that has the most immediate impact. Nothing has time to develop or simply grow on people.
Some of the most famous brands had campaigns and taglines than ran for yearsdecades in some cases. Im beginning to think those days are long gone. Not because brands cant benefit from longlasting ideas but as advertising professionals our careers cant be advanced by continuing someone elses great campaign.
In a few years will there even be ad campaigns as weve come to know them? Will any idea be big enough to last more than a month?
I suspect we wont see too many campaigns with legs. Which is one more reason the best legs attached to the best minds dont get into advertising in the first place these days.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Branding. Religion. Censorship. Office politics. Global politics. Sexual politics. And getting drunk during a job interview.
Since 2002 Danny G. a.k.a. Dan Goldgeier has been writing the most provocative advertising columns ever published. They’re all witty thoughtful and probing and a must read for those who want a perspective rarely seen in traditional industry publications.
An Atlantabased copywriter and ad school graduate Dan has worked at shops big and small. He reads incessantly about advertising and is a whiz at rock roll trivia. Learn more about him by visiting his copywriting website or AdColumnist.com the View From The Cheap Seats Archive website. You may also find articles by Danny G at TalentZoo.com.
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