Times are Changing, Your Ads Should too

Yes, I do watch Mad Men, and yes, this blog post may or may not be inspired by it. Advertising has changed so much over the years and continues to daily. Remember how detailed Tom & Jerry was?.. Especially compared to the newer cartoons. That’s how I feel when I see older ads compared to today’s.

I’ll start with one we all know, the Coca-Cola Santa Claus. Who doesn’t like those ads? I guess I can be a bit biased, I’m writing a blog about advertising. But you have to admit, they’re really beautiful. I think we can appreciate older ads because we had more time. We read magazines and we actually watched TV. Imagine a world without Netflix? Believe it or not, it did exist.

Ads today have so much noise to break through. While there’s no special formula of how to break through all of the clutter, these tips may help:

Don’t Overthink It.

Say exactly what you want to and make the message clear. People don’t like when things are hard to figure out. Make it light and to the point. I for one, would much rather smirk or watch something light hearted while I wait for my show to come back on. I don’t need a complex explanation of how the chemicals in your window cleaner work to get the smudges off. I’d rather watch someone walk into a glass door because the window was just that clean. Maybe it’s my sense of humor, or maybe it’s Maybelline. No but really, this is just my opinion- no magic formula.

Change It Up.

Think about a car commercial. Think about every car commercial. What’s the difference? I wish I could tell you. A truck driving over a dirt road is not impressive to me. A car driving down the road is exactly what I’d hope it can do. What feature makes it different than all the rest? Is it the most fuel efficient car out there? Can it fit 100 grocery bags in the trunk? Don’t show me what I already know, show me exactly why I should spend my money on that particular vehicle.

Be Genuine.

This kind of goes hand in hand with don’t overthink it. What exactly is your product? What does it do? If you have to do a 90 minute infomercial, maybe your product isn’t that great. If you over-sell your product, you don’t come off trustworthy, which is a problem us advertisers face and is a topic for another blog post. If your product is great, the advertising will do the work for you.