I was just reading a book and had an epiphany. I lived in the era of the greatest ad campaign. I saw it. Lived it. Saw thousands of people believe it. Blindly. You lived it too and didn't notice. This ad campaign, though, didn't get any award whatsoever. No Clio, no Cannes... no nothing. And it wasn't made by publicists at all. But it worked. People bought it hook, line and sinker. Ok, ok. I'll tell.
The greatest ad campaign? Let me give you the unique selling proposition: Saddam is responsible for 911 and has weapons of mass destruction. The product: Bush!!! Nope, not the Anheuser kind.
Hey, you might think I'm kidding. I'm dead serious. This campaign was pure genious. Just look at how they got us believing in this idea. I can picture the whole campaign development:
First, you have to repeat the message. Get your public. Reach, reach, reach, you tell your media buyer. Well, get on any channel there can possibly be and repeat that idea until people are tired of hearing it. Bush repeated this single minded proposition any which way he could. In every speech, in every interview. Ok. Great, the channels are flooded with the info.
What else? We need characters, said the Creative Director. A good cast so that people don't get bored and change the channel. Get more people in the campaign telling the same thing. Perfect. Just open up that cabinet, Mr. President. Condoleeza Rice. Dick (great name by the way) Cheney. Donald Rumsfeld. The list can go on forever, dudes.
The last thing? Hey, every ad campaign presentation has to have a "Reasons Why" section. Um. Got it! Fear! Fear was our reason why. Can it have a face, asks one Account Executive. Sure. Take your pick: Osama or a dirty bomb.
Face it. It was perfect. And it wasn't made by any of us ad agency people. Makes us think. Are we publicists... or could we work for the government... Wagging the dog? Whoa. Food for thought.
1 comments:
I'm not so sure it was the best ad campaign ever for the simple reason that so many people did not buy it. The world didn't back the US up and many people in the states that actually think about what the president says were like.... "fuck no we don't have top go to war". The war in Iraq was were they dropped the ball.. 911 was a whole other story. 911 was brilliant in that any way you look at it, the Bush government handled the single most heinous terrorist attack in history since hiroshima by appealing to all the emotions of people. Americans and the world at large needed to point a finger bad and Republicans did a simple bait and snatch and boom Al Qaeda is in the picture. This along with putting a face to a lunatic tyrant and all the hype in the world produced the single most cohesive anti race sentiment witnessed in the world.
Later on they super hyped things up and guess what... Bush Vs Bin Laden was born.. but in the end they didn't do as well a job of selling the war as they did of convincing most people to look at Arabs in a negative manner, no matter if you have a good friend who is Saudi.
Oh well, the lambs do respond well and trust me that this dyslexic shepperd keeps surprising me on a constant basis through sheer, balls idiocy and Trifecta fuck-ups that would make anyone hurl in sheer disdain.
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