The reaction is obviously worth writing about; my confusion comes from how the issue blew up in the first place.
We're not talking about a prestigious competition, just a bit of Facebook fun, a "casual photography contest" with the winner getting a small prize. Clearly photographers (of which I count myself, albeit a casual one) took this pretty seriously. Now had I been in this competition I would have pointed out 'Hey, this winner is just a piece of bad image manipulation, it doesn't even look real!' - but personally I don't see why the original author felt compelled to apologize so profusely, as if they had done something immoral or deceptive.
Brands can't own love any more than coke owns happiness. Maybe what brands should do is... (crazy idea) stop trying to align themselves with wishy-washy feelings, and actually remind us why we need to buy them.
"Married couples often love each other" - wow, what a powerful, powerful insight that is.
Imagine this with straight people. It's boring.
Putting a bunch of gay couples in your ad makes it no less boring.
Mullen messed up on this one, unless they're aggressively going out for the pink pound. And cut the 'emotional' tinkle-tinkle piano music. My heart is hard to this. I don't wanna support love, I wanna see how your product has relevance to my life. This is what happens when advertising thinks it has an important responsibility to be SEEN as socially progressive. Of course no one would have done this 5 years ago because cowardice.
Once again, advertising does not change society, it only ever reflects it. And we have a responsibility above all else to sell. This ad with gay couples, straight couples, any couples at all - is boring - and falls at the first hurdle.
Ogilvy said "We sell. Or else." Why can't people remember the basics? Instead we're churning out safe and pointless testimonials.
Maybe this says more about my black and white thinking than anything, but I presume most people who are regularly hitting the gym aren't drinking alcohol because of the negative health implications.
I'm for one jealous of those who can have a 6-pack AND a 6-pack, because I'm sure as hell not one of them. I just got serious about my diet, joined a gym and started using the MyFitnessPal app, so I can tell you that 95 calories is like 100g of lean chicken breast... or we learn, one Michelob beer.
I guess if we believe the strategy 'those who are serious about health also want to drink' then this is a fair creative interpretation of that. But wouldn't they go for a glass or two of red wine - high in antioxidants and good for your heart!
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