Thursday, May 31, 2007

Many publicities can these days be stirred up with bad publicity.

Nice to drift over to the world of ads once in a while.

Dr Martens sticks boot in

This commentator (never been called that before, so I'm climbing aboard the bandwagon) could care less about the ad (though asking the relatives might have been polite), but is fascinated by the process surrounding the apparent 'furore'. Was that the term in the original release used to kick-start it?

When I first read about this it seemed to be some kind of student competition that got taken too far, and without the knowledge of senior agency or client. So far, so tee-hee...whoopsie: 'They didn't die with our boots on?"

Now it seems it is/was a commissioned piece, using a high-profile photographer, for a one-off 'authorised' insertion in some medium I've never heard of, like that would render it in better taste than being seen anywhere else. As most awards hounds will tell you, it's quite easy to get a dodgy bit of 'edginess' mainstream with a complicit agency/client/minor-medium cabal, a little bit of MySpace or YouTube to 'find' it has been spread around, with a nudge from the PR division to kickstart the Daily Mail, and...ta-daa: a bit more than was 'intended'.

So... what next? It was all actually a big hoot to get a bunch more PR value than the original, rather average concept warranted. Surely not?

Bless.

Crap ads don't hurt people. Being complicit in helping sell them for a few cheap ratings points does.

BRAND REPUBLIC

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