As an instructor for undergraduate marketing, I have an assignment called “Good, Bad, and Ugly.” Every week, each student brings in one good marketing piece, one bad marketing piece, and one ugly marketing piece. Their selections vary from photos of billboards to magazine ads to television commercials.
Last night, one of my students brought in the commercial below as her ugly marketing piece. She thought this guy was awful, and it was the most ridiculous commercial she had ever seen. It sparked an interesting class discussion.
Some of the other students (and myself) thought it was actually a good commercial, good in the way that we wanted to visit this man’s store. With 6 million+ viewers on YouTube, featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and time.com, and a song you really can’t get out of your head once you hear it, is it good to be bad? Is it possible that once you cross that line from bad to super bad, does it become good marketing? You tell me.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My opinion: accidentally good!
This morning I had a buddy post a Facebook status update complaining about a radio ad he hears every morning for 1-877-kars4kids. It has a horrible jingle that sticks in your brain. So much so that you want to ram a skewer in there to dislodge it. He wrote an email to them asking them to stop, and he posted their reply on Facebook:
“We apologize for the way you feel about the advertisement for Kars4kids. Unfortunately, we have many underprivileged children in our organization who are in need of help and we try assist them with our car donation program. As of now, we are not planning on switching the radio ad, for we have received a lot of positive feedback for it.”
What transpired was a 14-post rant among his friends. Which just proves the deep penetration and recall of this ad.
See related post here: http://www.vosizneias.com/29162/2009/03/20/lakewood-nj-kars-4-kids-jingle-drives-some-listeners-insane/
That is another good example. I went searching to hear this jingle, but couldn’t find it.
If anyone has the link to the actual mp3 of the commercial, please post it.
Thanks for sharing Bob!
Jennifer –
Fun post. There are a lot of really bad commercials that are really effective. In the end, it is truly about recall, getting attention and driving action.
Not sure if you ever found the jingle but here it is.
http://www.kars4kids.org/jingle/jingle-index.asp
Thanks.
twitter: @eyebrand
Actually, I think this is great marketing. Maybe the production value isn’t spotless, but so what?
- It’s out of the ordinary
- It’s memorable
- Gives people something to hang meaning on: “Just like a mini-mall.”
- Some people like it, some people don’t (always a sign of good advertising).
Anything that gets this stuck in your head after hearing it can’t be that bad.
Thanks for your comments!
Jennifer
There’s most certainly a line. If Anheiser Bush puts out a bad ad, you know they paid BIG bucks for it, and you have to wonder what their agency of experts was thinking. When a small business person, or a non-profit puts it out, it’s a bit more noble.
I grew up in Denver. Tom Shane has been my friend in the diamond business for nearly 40 years. He went away from his monotone ads and even the signature tag line, and even became a little self-deprecating. As a marketer, I love, love, loved the ads. But within days, he was getting letters telling him to go back to the old ads. I guess that’s more branding than advertising, but it does prove how effective even “bad” ads are.
U8E3
Hi Carrie,
You make some very good points here. I like the idea that small businesses doing this is noble.
Thanks again for your comments.
Jennifer