My Solution for Ad Inflation

I normally don’t read magazines in print. I mostly snack-read online, sampling bits and pieces of articles from Google News and Drudge that tantalize me. But occasionally, I’ll glance through Reader’s Digest (when I’m stuck in the bathroom with absolutely nothing else) or a copy of Wired.

During these rare interactions with the paper-and-ink format, one thing always stands out to me: excessive ads. Often, more than half their content is sponsored (ads or advertorials). The editors just don’t know when to quit. And this seems to be the case with almost every major publication. I imagine this ad-happy trend has to do with audience fragmentation, which leads to dwindling readership, which results in lower prices for ad space, which means a lower bottom line. The easiest and most obvious fix? Crank up the number of ads to make up the difference. Brilliant! Business model saved, right?

But hold on a sec. Once you start down that road, you risk damaging your magazine’s brand, because you look like a sellout. You give the impression that you care more about your advertisers than your readers. Not a good move. Readers get you advertisers; not the other way around.

On top of that, your brand holds less luster for advertisers because they’re now competing against more ads for the reader’s attention. That clutter can also drive down the value of your ad space. So, what you get is a vicious cycle of ever-increasing ads, ever-dwindling readership and ever-declining profits. Let’s just call it ad inflation (I don’t know if someone already coined this phrase, but I’ll just take credit for now). It’s an unsustainable practice that the magazine industry (and TV and newspaper industries, for that matter) seems to be embracing—with no immediate sign of recovery.

The solution to clutter isn’t more clutter.

You see, ad inflation is similar to monetary inflation: it responds to the laws of economics. When you increase the supply of dollars—either by printing more or creating credit from thin air—you don’t magically create wealth, you just lower the value of all dollars by the amount you printed/credited. Likewise, when you increase the ad supply, it makes the value of ads, overall, decline.

Call me crazy, but I think there’s a sweet business opportunity here for some smart company looking to carve out a niche in the market. Why not make a magazine (or newspaper, TV network or whatever) that makes a written commitment to its audience (perhaps on the cover, just under the masthead) to limit the ads to…say, 10 per issue? Unrealistic? Absurd? Maybe. But I think it would be a win for readers, advertisers and publication owners. Here’s why:

1. You would maintain a level of trust with your readers that no one in the industry has (yes, loading up your mag with tons of crappy ads destroys your readers’ trust—even if you are their favorite publication).
2. It would be a coveted placement for smart advertisers because they wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle. Their ad would be much more likely to be warmly received and vividly remembered.
3. Advertisers would have a feeling of exclusivity and prestige just for getting into your publication, adding even more value to your sponsored space.
4. No one else would dare do it. As Marty Neumeier would say, when everyone else zigs, you ZAG. It’s a smart, unique strategy that would create a high-performance brand (assuming you have great editorial content in the first place).
5. Sustainability. For both the environment and your bottom line. With less ads, you’d use less paper and ink, and save on postage costs, too.

So, that’s my simple solution for ad inflation. I may be dreaming, but I hear it’s good to do that every once in a while.

P.S. All you entrepreneurs out there, feel free to run with this idea—free of all charges, licensing fees and royalties. This one’s on me. Just hook me up with a free subscription of your 10-ad-only magazine and a dinner for me and my wife at some fancy-schmancy restaurant…when you make your first million.

Nissan Altima Print Ad: Chickens Crossing (Digging under) the Road

This is oldest joke in the book. But when done right, it’s still one of the best.

The copy reads: “The 280-hp Nissan Altima SE-R. Make way.” A similar ad with completely different art direction (it was illustrated) was featured in Communication Arts a year or two ago for some kind of chicken meat (the idea was “smart chicken”). But I think Nissan’s twist on the concept works better.

By the way, have you ever tried to corral a chicken on the loose? Now just imagine that volatile animal wielding a razor-sharp spade. Scary.

Mormon TV Commercials (“Truth Restored”)

These ads for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known as the Mormon Church), aired last year in specific markets.

“Eternal family”…”softened my heart”

“Welcome home”

“Return to be with God”…”was I with God before?”

“Families should be eternal”

“How could it be cut off by death?”

The high-contrast black-and-white footage, stark white background and gentle soundtrack do a great job of standing out from the business-as-usual ad clutter. The most emotionally stirring thing about these ads is the “performance” of the actors; but that’s because they weren’t actors. Truth be told, none of them even had a script. They simply retold their real conversion stories while sitting in front of a camera. There’s no pretense, no sales pitch, nothing superficial. Just real people with real questions and trials, all longing for truth. I’m familiar with the background on these ads because I was lucky enough to get a little behind-the-scenes info from my former professors, Kevin Kelly, Adrian Pulfer and Steve Wonderli, while they were working on the campaign.

At the end of each ad, the viewer is introduced to mormon.org, where one can learn about our basic beliefs. The tagline “Truth Restored” refers to the restoration of the same Church Jesus Christ established during his ministry in Jerusalem. Hence, the name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Any thoughts on these?

State Farm YouTube Commercial: No Popsicle Stick

My friends Kenny Hammond and Brandon Crockett, an art director and copywriter at DDB Chicago, worked on this YouTube video titled “Something’s Missing” for State Farm Insurance. They used hidden cameras to get candid reactions from their unsuspecting…eh, victims. I think it turned out great. Have a look.

Ice Cream Truck

I can just imagine how my wife would flip if someone tried to pull a stunt like that with one of our kids. I’ve included the rest of this series as well. The car wash one was pretty funny too because the chubby guy nails his role so well.

Car Wash

Shoe Shine

Hot Dog

Foot Massage

Bike Rental

What do you think?

Monster TV Commercial: Stork—“Your Calling is Calling”

See if you get this ad.

It took me sec, but I finally made the connection: don’t let down the stork (he fought off wolves for you after all). We all come into the world with unlimited potential; yet so many don’t feel like they live up to it. Instead, they end up pushing papers, scrubbing bathrooms, or flipping burgers.

I think we can all relate to some degree with the bored-out-of-his-wits office drone, yawning away his shift as he mindlessly performs his monotonous duties. And the tagline, “Your calling is calling,” particularly resonates with me.

Good job, Monster.com and BBDO (the ad agency that pulled it off). By showing us a looser, you’ve made a winner. Now good luck making back in site traffic what you spent in extravagant CGI.

Nike Commercial with Tiger Woods and His Father—“You’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you”

One of my favorite athletes is Tiger Woods. He’s arguably more dominant in golf than Michael Jordan ever was in basketball. I don’t follow golf as a sport, but I follow Tiger as an athlete. He has an uncanny ability to perform under extreme pressure that I find entrancing. His play in the US Open last weekend bore all the marks of an ageless classic. Almost our entire office was in the kitchen glued to the TV during the final holes of Monday’s playoff against Rocco Mediate. Even the bosses were watching.

This Nike ad, titled “Never,” aired during the tournament.

I love this one because it doesn’t stoop to clichés or schmaltz, even when it has every opportunity to. Somehow they managed to pick just the right footage and music to turn what could have been a disrespectful commercialization of Tiger and his late father into an inspiring piece of art. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that his father’s bold statement, “Tiger, I promise you that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you…in your entire life. And he hasn’t. And he never will,” turned out to be prophecy—at least on the golf course.

Here are some highlights from the US Open, in case you missed it.

Bud Light Lime Commercial

Here I go, blogging about beer ads again. This time it’s Bud Light Lime, a new beer from Anheuser Busch. DDB Chicago (where I interned) made these spots. Apparently, they were intended as much for an online audience as broadcast TV, so the director tried to give them a YouTube-ish feel.

The Mascot thing isn’t a new concept. However the drastically shortened, headless CG torso on “Limey” is. One look and you’ll be saying, “that ain’t natural!”

Limey getting crazy with coasters

Limey Skateboarding

It’s almost like someone gave one of the little M&M guys a set of nasty bare legs and forced him through citrus purgatory. Then bah-duh-bing-bah-duh-boom!—the resulting freak-of-nature instinctively knows all sorts of tricks with a skateboard and coaster. And why not! I for one have always wanted to know what would happen if a lime sprouted appendages and came to life possessed by the combined spirits of Tony Hawk and a ninja bartender. Thankfully, my mind now rests in ease.

With the tag line, “It’s amazing what a little lime can do”, they get their message (beer with lime) across effectively, and the videos are funny/bizarre enough that you might even want to show them to a friend or two. So they probably work. But since I don’t drink, I really have no idea.

Thoughts?

Finnegans Radio Ads

These St. Patrick’s Day radio ads for Finnegans Irish Amber are gut-busting, laugh-to-tears hilarious. A wee bit irreverent? Yes, absolutely. They start out “blessed are those who drink Finnegans,” and then it’s all down hill from there. But if you can make it through the sacrilege and the thick Irish brogue, you’re in for a fun 60 seconds.

Now I’d like to point out that I’m not endorsing this product in anyway. To tell the truth, I don’t even drink. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more known as the Mormon Church), I live by the Word of Wisdom: a law of health that prohibits consumption of alcohol, coffee, tea and illicit drugs.

But I also recognize as well as anyone that beer (or in this case, ale) commercials are some of the funniest out there. So for me, this is all about the brilliance of the ad’s writing, music and voice talent—not the beverage. In fact, I have a brother that served a mission for our Church in Ireland and he can attest to how true these are to the Irish culture.

That said, onto the ads.

“House”

“Karate”

“Mechanical Bull”

I’d like to emphasize an interesting strategy behind this concept (besides the fact that “Finnegan’s donates all its profits to charity”). Finnegan’s is actually calling attention to the obvious inebriating effects of their brew; something I’ve never seen in any alcoholic drink’s ads. It’s not glamorous, but it’s honest—and in this case, hysterical.

For once, an alcoholic beverage company is willing to own up to what everyone knows in the first place: if you drink enough of the stuff, you’re going to get sloshed. You have to hand it to them for being willing to tackle the issue at all—even if they’re just trying to sell more of it, not warn against its adverse consequences.

And besides, you have to give credit to any ad that can get away with saying “karate potion” or “domicile”—no matter what the context.

By the way, I found these on the 2008 Radio-Mercury Awards Finalists list (the highest award in radio advertising).

Directv “Blog it out” Commercial

This ad aired during the NCAA National Championship Game—just one of a slew of great ads during the event. My buddy said he was actually more impressed with the NCAA’s commercials than this year’s Super Bowl offerings

What makes this ad so funny is the performance by the out-of-touch business exec that wants to “go viral” and “get on the Net” to “blog it out.”

Interestingly, Directv depicts the guy who cares about the blogosphere as a total self-centered dingbat. For a company trying to show off their technologically-advanced prowess, it’s ironic that they’re also subtlety poking fun at the new media—apparently “tweens” are the only ones that care about blogs—that now makes and brakes products and brands. However, considering the fact that I’m writing about their ad and posting it on my blog (free advertising for them), they probably know exactly what they’re doing. Still, they don’t have this posted on YouTube yet. So they’re not totally with it.

There’s a few more ads to this campaign here—though not as funny as this one, in my opinion.

Buy a Book, Build a Forest

I found this poster series on the Communication Arts website.  In collaboration with the Arbor Day Foundation, the in-house design team at Nebraska Book Company made these to promote the purchase of used text books.

I love the balance of color, the paradoxical concept, and the way the illustrations use negative space, allowing your eye to instinctively complete the image forms. And notice the clever use of the inverted recycle logo to create the v in save—a nice little touch of visual wit.

Ironically, the tag line, “Buy a Book, Build a Forest,” reminds me of an anything-but-politically-correct bumper sticker I saw as a teenager in Idaho. Its message aimed to achieve the same end, just through different means. It read, “Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver.”