When Does Controversial Advertising Go Too Far?
In my second and most likely last installment about controversial advertising, let’s talk about some campaigns that went too far & delve into why they went too far. This is where I think controversial campaigns get interesting from the armchair quarterback perspective because I think the definition of too far greatly depends on your personal mindset. Benetton, for example, has often found success with their controversial images and campaigns. But sometimes they have gone too far & received a backlash from it as a result. So, has Calvin Klein. Often…
When it came to Avis, they made a wise choice by admitting that they weren’t the best. But they turned this negative into a positive. They want to be number one so they responded by saying “We try harder.”
Today, it seems the Republican presidential nominee is taking a page from the Avis case study. The Democratic nominee’s activities have garnered a ton of attention from the media for quite some time as if his visits overseas were going to establish any new policies or relationships. To counter this, McCain’s latest commercial, called Celeb Ad, compares Obama’s popularity to shallow celebrities…
