That Fine Line

There are a lot of great quotes that came from the Spinal Tap film but one I find myself using over and over is “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”  I thought of that last night as I watched the Super Bowl and all the very expensive commercials.  I also thought about the famous David Ogilvy quote – “The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything.”  Given that many of these ads would make me the moron in question, here’s a reminder to any of us who do marketing – and if you’re in business, that’s pretty much all of us.

I’ll start by saying I liked some  the ads a lot.  The Darth Vader VW ad was brilliant in its story-telling and showing off the product.   The Motorola Xoom as was a clever take off on the classic 1984 Apple ad.  The repositioning of Apple as Big Brother was genius.  I thought the “House” promo that redid Coke’s Mean Joe Greene ad and the NFL’s tribute to the fans using TV icons in NFL gear were nicely done as well.

Then there were ads that were just stupid.  Anyone who knows me understands that I’m a huge fan of lowbrow humor.  However, even in dumb humor we can find a line that shouldn’t be crossed.  Maybe it’s ethics, maybe it’s common sense.  Either way, the best funny stuff challenges people’s prejudices; it doesn’t reinforce them.  Clever | stupid.  See the line?

The characterization of guys as too stupid to know when they’re being stupid, blinded by beer (Bud), speechless except for “nice rack” references (Teleflora), and some of the other spots that involved crotch-smashing were just lazy – cheap attempts at humor that failed other than to cross over into the stupid side of the line.  At $3 million just for the air time, maybe the agency needs to work a little harder?

Those, however, weren’t the worst.  No, those would be the ads that actually were offensive.  That would be you, GroupOn.  Tibet is totally screwed but hey, they make a great fish curry and we’re thousands of miles away so party on?  Really?  I thought GoDaddy had changed their stripes with the clever set up to Joan Rivers but then they reverted to form.  Trust me – the 11 year olds who might actually head to your site to see the “unrated” version already know how to find real porn if they want.  Why treat the rest of us like morons?

I watched the game with a bunch of folks from different demos – age, sex, race, etc.  You’d be surprised how universally the stench rolled off of some of the commercials.  So if you market, don’t assume that “he’s not the audience” works as an excuse.  Be smart, be clever, be respectful.  That doesn’t have to mean be boring – far from it as a few of the ads proved.

What were your favorites and fails from the game?  You can find them all here and then share your thoughts.