Raef fired, and SurAlan’s a great Ad man
I know, I know, I shouldn’t watch programmes like The Apprentice expecting to see good business practice. But this programme’s beyond a joke. SurAlan’s become a caricature of a business model that is dead and dying. Last night’s advertising fiasco is the best example yet of why SurAlan’s world is disappearing.
In case you didn’t watch it (there was a bit of football going on), both teams had to design a branded box of tissues and flog in a TV and newspaper Ad. Lee’s efforts would have scored him a grade D in GCSE English, and the garish orange box won, because SurAlan liked the pack-shot.
This is the old-fashioned TV-industrial complex, where average product is forced upon consumers, until enough average punters yield, and money is made. In the new world, we *should* sell what consumers want, not what we think they want.
Raef’s team produced an ad with narrative, an ad that you might just avoid skipping. Everyone ignored the fact that 80% of TiVo owners skip ads, and that ads must be compelling in their own right to avoid being skipped. I couldn’t believe that the so-called ‘Ad professionals’ also ignored this fact. The reason, of course, is that old media advertisers are clinging on to a dying empire, and dare not admit that a great big orange box shoved in the viewers face, might not work.
Still, it’s damned good television.
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