Monday, 28 March 2011

Advertising Oscars

There should definitely be the equivalent of an Oscar ceremony for the TV advertisers. Some of the awards I'd like to make for 2011 are: MOST POINTLESS ADVERTISMENT The AVIVA ad that starts with someone trapped in a call centre, singing, 'ISA, ISA, ISA' would be the clear winnier here. You can see that the creative genius behind this is the same one responsible for changing the name of NORWICH UNION to the present anonymous one, probably shared with a thousand joke or tourist souvenir shops somewhere. MOST AUDACIOUS ADVERTISEMENT You have to admire the sheer effrontery of WONGA.COM. They call themselves something like 'Alternative Loans Provider of the Year', and then breathtakingly put interest rates exceeding 4,ooo% APR up front. MOST UNAPPEALING ADVERTISEMENT This would be a close-run contest. In the frame would be the diseased mind responsible for the DOMESTOS rubber-sucker germs. But the eventual winner would probably be the creator of the woman-icon of CONFUSED.COM. This must have lost them a lot of sales. Should they change their name to BEMUSED.COM? Fancy letting themselves be beaten by a fat opera-singer annoyingly singing 'GO COMPARE'. There IS intelligent life in the universe. It's just that there's not much of it in the advertising industry.