Sometimes, TV Ads go for an “Easy target” to gain popularity quickly. Nothing wrong with it! We adopt the most popular topics and tactics to make a spot resonate, connect, become memorable, and achieve the magic 2 words “increase likability”.
As a politician when campaigning, we often want to associate our clients’ brands with babies. It is the quintessential image of purity and innocence. It immediately generates empathy. It is a sure winner for many products.
The role of babies in TV Ads have dramatically changed over the years.
In the 1950s and 1960s. It was easy to be a baby on a TV Ad. You just needed to act… like a baby. The ads were about… baby products. Life was simple.
Brand: Dial (1965)
Agency: Unknown
Compare that to the impossible job of babies (thank God for Computer Animation!) on TV Ads nowadays:
Brand: Evian (Danone)
Agency: BETC Paris
Why do we like it? Confronted with the tough job of making water special in 30 seconds, the creative agency does a great job of bringing to life the “inner baby” in each of us. They break through the clutter with a fun, nice, charming tactical implementation that celebrates joyful cuteness and naive purity. The brand and product association with these values is priceless.
Brand: NRMA
Agency: Y&R (unconfirmed)
Why do we like it? It is not exaggerated. I heard some people (not only in the U.S.!) referring to their car (or bike) as “my baby”. Here is the association with that feeling we get when we leave our new car in the hands of a 19 year old valet parking or we drop it for maintenance at a garage shop and hear the revving engine, screeching tires, as the technician drives it to the service area with the same care he uses to throw an used oil can into the garbage bin.
Brand: Mc Donald’s
Agency: Leo Burnett
Why do we like it? Right at the start of the Computer Animated Baby TV Ad boom, this Super Bowl TV Ad played with a simple and strong concept. It was powerful and memorable, as it happened at the beginning of that fashion. However, nowadays, a baby needs to work harder for the pay day…
Brand: E-Trade
Agency: Grey (“When we created the baby, we had no idea if it was the dumbest thing we’d ever done or if it was genius”)
Why do we like it? Another Super Bowl Classic Ad. A strong bet for an association that it is both, memorable and effective to deliver the message. The message is rather simple in the delivery frame (a web cam), which gives even stronger power to the “baby” concept itself. The baby does a lot of legwork for the brand and product: likability, trust, stock investing is easy, retirement product with a twist, memorability… the list in as endless as the series of Ads that exploited this gold mine that Grey built for their client. Genius.
Inspired by E-Trade
Shazam and Seat
I believe in “standing on the shoulders of giants”. I don’t have anything against copying ideas… in music, graphics, marketing, life… but I also believe that it gives us a responsibility to elevate those ideas a step higher.
This TV Ad seems to need GPS, more than music. The connection is too soft and subtle to create a strong clear result that brings to life the consumer benefits of the products alliance. It definitely needs more dotted lines pointing at the goal line to bring it home.
This spot reverses everything that a baby represents for mainstream culture to create a shock and an affinity with those who reject the mainstream culture stereotypes. Those are powerful elements to make the TV Ad memorable. This technique has a caveat that diminishes effectiveness: Those who would find the TV Ad most shocking would likely reject the contrast… and their minds would ban it from the list of memorable priorities. Those who would find it amusing, would most likely not relate favorably or unfavorably to babies and will find it unmemorable. The appeal to terror movies? Valid but limited and not adding to the product.
There are two things that you need to do to become one of the greatest masters at any art form:
- Know the rules by heart
- Dissect and assimilate the work of the best masters with your brain
- Break the rules with guts
Here is a timeless and inspiring interview with advertising master, Mr. David Ogilvy. It provides you with some point 1, a lot of point 2, and inspiration to do point 3.
Isn’t it amazing when you can do something for your whole life and still approach it with the same amazement and curiosity as the first day?
Thank you for reading. Until the next article,
Javier