an excerpt from The New York Times
The mad men of Madison Avenue are really mad these days,
creating a spate of angry advertising campaigns that seek to
channel the outrage, frustration and fear felt by consumers hit
hard by what some are calling the Great Recession.
The campaigns take an outspoken, provocative tone that is
unusual for mainstream marketing messages, which typically try to
avoid aggrieved attitudes for fear of alienating audiences. The
change reflects the significant shift in sentiment as the public
reacts to the wrenching and, at times, frightening financial events
of the last year.
...
"You need to walk in the shoes of the average consumers today,"
said Marc Brownstein, president and chief executive at the
Brownstein Group advertising agency in Philadelphia. "They're a
little beat up and their wallets are lighter, and the people they
trusted stole from them."
Marketers "have got to rebuild that trust," said Mr. Brownstein,
who blogs about the agency business for the trade publication
Advertising Age, by being "brutally honest" in their ads.
"Candor is in," he advised.
Post Shredded Wheat, sold by the Post Foods division of Ralcorp
Holdings, tries being candid in a campaign centered on a
make-believe boss named Frank Druffel who wonders, "Has progress
taken us to a better place?" and concludes, "I'd say it's taken us
for a ride. (Probably in a carbon-coughing oil guzzler.)" The point
is to present the brand, unchanged since 1892, as the cereal that
"put the 'no' in innovation."
The tone reflects a belief now widespread among "fed-up"
consumers that "as the world gets more complicated, the more
trouble we get ourselves in," said Tim Piper, creative director at
Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in New York, the WPP agency that
creates campaigns for Post cereals.
The boss character is supposed to be "a speaker for the truth,"
Mr. Piper said, "who could say what no one else is saying."
...
"People are disaffected and disillusioned," said Marc E. Babej,
president of Reason Inc. in New York, a brand and corporate
strategy consulting company, and siding with them can help
advertisers "grab a bit of attention."
"But I would be careful as a marketer about playing with the
notions of 'We understand you' or 'We're on your side,' " Mr. Babej
said, "because there's some risk of it harming you if it's not
really relevant to your product."
Or as Mr. Brownstein of the Brownstein Group put it, "You can't
anger people into buying your brand."
In which category might anger be appropriate? Perhaps for one of
the ground zeroes of the economy, financial services. A campaign
for the Bessemer Trust Company, which helps the wealthy manage
their money, carries this frank headline: "Why should you believe
anything we say?"
"Rarely in history have so many been so violated by so few," the
text begins. "We understand. We're as angry as you are, because the
actions of those few have cast a pall of doubt and suspicion over
everyone even remotely related to the financial industry."
The ad addresses consumers as if "they are basically frozen in
place," said Orson Munn, chief executive at Munn Rabôt in New York,
the Bessemer Trust agency. "You have to speak with them in a way
that shocks them out of being frozen."
"It's a very fine line, because if we go too far it'll push the
brand over the edge," he said. "But you have to feel a little
uncomfortable with advertising for it to work."