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June 15, 2005
Edgy Creative Lands Walmart in Hot Water
We've all heard the story of how Walmart got themselves in trouble with Nazi-era imagery in their ads.
Edgy creative is often a recipe for problems. Some brands, especially large established ones like Walmart, shouldn't go anywhere near this kind of stuff and their agencies should know better.
Long story short - don't let "breaking through the clutter" come ahead of other important marketing disciplines i.e. research on customer needs, product development and a well examined customer experience.
The notion of being able to dream up the magical ad that is going to change everything is a romantic thought for creatives. However, agencies should remember that the world is not sitting out there waiting for some ad to unleashed on an unsuspecting public spurring skyrocketing awareness of a product, rapid growth in market share and peace in the Middle East.
Walmart is naive to expect a flood of public support based on what amounts to a play in creating fear and frankly the similarities between the U.S. and Nazi Germany are a stretch. Although even in a free market economy, the biggest and most successful players seem to get their share of backlash and punishment along the way, this kind of tactic isn't going to get anyone on side.
Posted by Derek Leverington at June 15, 2005 11:56 PM
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