Its ok to cheat as long as you don't get caught!

Yeah right.

Personal opinion: its never ok to cheat on your significant other, or have an affair or anything of the sort. Those kinda of things are what breaks hearts all over the place and sends people into a spiraling void of depression and hate. Its a stupid way of dealing with relationship problems. If you're not happy in your relationship, talk to the other person and deal with it. If after that it doesn't work out then leave. Its as simple as that.

That being said, some brands have opted to pique consumer interest by adding just a little spice into their ads. They try to give their ads an edge by introducing the idea of cheating or having an affair, something seen as taboo in society. The question: is it done in just good humor or is it promoting the acceptance of infidelity?

Lets just start with Ashley Madison and get it out of the way.

ashleymadison.com is someone's fantastic idea of a dating site - except targeted at committed individuals looking to have an affair with other comitted people. Basically its your go to site if you ever feel the need to cheat on your significant other but are too lazy to wait for a drunken opprotunity at a bar. You know you're going to do it anyways, and this site just makes it easier. And they're not hiding what they're about either. Its all over their ads. Their branding basically boasts that if you dont like being with your current partner, go have an affair. Literally:

And you know what, their adversiting is spot on for what their brand is about. Its all about cheating, so why wouldn't be all over their advertising. They're targetting a specific market and they're selling their brand effectively.

Who knew you could market the smell of coffee and cigarettes and ink and package it as an alibi for your cheating?

Apparently this entire fragrance line is targetted towards men who need an excuse out of why they were late or where they were. If you cheated, no worries, spray some "burnt rubber and steel" on yourself and she won't even doubt your story for a second!

I will give this one an ok as well, because the product is marketed specifically for the act of cheating. So saucy ads like these will surely boost your brand.

Now on to the ones that make no sense to me.

Sex sells. I get that. But what do pretzels have anything to do with using this type of provocative advertising? Lose your old one for a new thin and stacked one? Really? The advertisers know full well what kind of message they were sending with this one. I'm sure someone thought it was a clever idea at the production stage because of the actual product, but I think it was in poor taste. Then again, these fabulous people also brought us these gems:

 



I rest my case with this one.

Anyways, my point is that if your product is specifically targetted towards a market that cheats and has affairs, using infidelity in your marketing is perfectly appropriate. That is your brand and that is what you're trying to show the masses. If you're advertising for soap and your tagline is basically screaming "Take a hot bath with a sexy girl thats not your wife", I think you're trying too hard to sell something thats completely irrelevant to your branding strategy. Yeah, its a clever play on words and it catches attention and its provocative, but how much is it going to sell in the general population of fairly good natured consumers?

Subliminal Advertising

Subliminal messages in advertising suggest sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception. Basically saying that if I flash a 0.5 second message at someone repeatedly for a certain length of time it will stick in that person's brain without them realizing it. It suggests some sort of mind manipulation. Whether this can be actually called "manipulation" is debatable. Every person has a different theory, but there definitely two opposing sides: those who believe in it and consider it wrong, and those who don't think its exists.

Personally I think subliminal messaging is non existant. I think people are confusing creative branding and advertising for something that its not (in this case being "manipulation"). Designers go through a lot of pain staking thought and research to create ads and brands that are easily recognizable and unique. Their first thought is not "how can I manipulate the masses into remembering our ads and brand" but rather "how can I design this in such a way that it stands out from all the billions of ads there are and promote the brand properly." An easily recognizable brand is a job well done on the designer's part, and this is what we're paid to do.

Priming is a concept of  providing subtle information that influences the way we think about a certain brand. Taking the coca cola ad example here:

Because of how popular this brand is, we can easily distinguish that the smiley face is actually part of the Coca Cola logo. This is an example of priming from their advertising department. They're trying to get the consumers to associate their brand with happiness. And while that is the point, I wouldn't consider this "manipulation". There is nothing wrong with trying to associate your brand with a particular feeling or emotion. That is purpose of advertising and branding. We as designers are to create a connection with our audience and consumers. How are we to do that if we completely eliminate the use of priming in our work? I find it an effective tool to use when designing. If as a designer I can get the consumers to recognize my brand with just a few subtle hints then that means I have done my job well.

Priming is not exclusive to advertising. Many designers use it to design a particular brand. A few example include FedEx:

You can see the arrow pointing right between the E and X. Most people associate this as moving forward and with the business model of FedEx the subtle clues as to what the brand is about is present in the logo.

In this particular logo for Tostitos you can see two people enjoying a chip with a bowl of salsa between the S and O. This is clever subliminal messaging/priming from the designer to relate the logo to the brand and business. Manipulating the masses? I think not.

Advertising is a medium to sell a brand. Subliminal messaging and priming are not some underhanded methods to persuade consumers to buy certain products, but rather to create a connection and a lasting impression on them. They are purely just some ways advertising can be more effective and nothing else.

Is it funny enough to sell?

Thinking about this topic made me do some brain work. I've never really thought in depth about humor in advertising being a selling point. I did some analysis over my own spending habits and how much I buy based on advertising and how many of those ads had humor in it. Honestly, i'm still not even sure how to approach it. Here goes nothing.

I'm a shopping addict (to the point of a problem haha). I buy a lot of things on impulse. I wander stores and if something catches my eye, usually I end up buying it. I don't know how much of it is dependant on the advertising. There are certain products that I will go back to because I like the humorous advertising.

An example of that is vitamin water. The first time I tried this product wasn't because I wanted to try it, it was because of the witty advertising on the label.

I read one of those for the first time and it was the funniest thing to me. It was so cleverly done that I had to buy it. Not only did I buy one, I went and bought ever single one of them to read the labels every time I wanted a drink.

Needless to say I only ever buy vitamin water as a drink now. It the funny advertising that drew me in and I've continued to buy the product since then. I'm sure i'm not the only one. I mean how can you not?

I'm probably under the category of people that buy something because its funny or cute. That being said, I think the doritos ad with the banana man are hilarious and ridiculous. But I still don't like doritos. The funny advertising didn't do much to change my mind. I just don't like the product. Maybe thats because i've tried it before so its not the best example. Lets take the Snickers commercial. Their tagline is "you're not yourself when you're hungry" and the commercials are usually funny. It still doesn't make me want to buy a Snickers. I think the advertising is very well done. But it doesn't sell the product to me.

Vitamin water connected with its audience to sell their products. They had frank and genuine advertising that not only resonated with its consumers, it also compelled them to buy the product. To me it was literally a "look this is our product and we think its good for you, you should probably buy it" kind of approach, and it was done in such a hilarious and witty way that it worked. They knew their market, they did their research well and whoever designed that campaign knew exactly the kind of humor the target audience would appreciate.

I think humor in advertising is a very good way to relate to your audience. But you have to know the kind of humor your target audience will appreciate. It can't just be "funny" to sell the product. It has to connect. It has to hit the consumer in a way that makes them go "oh I get it! Thats awesome and I wanna buy this thing!". Any ad can be funny. Its when the humor is used well and in a way that really sells the product instead of just showing "look how funny we are!" that you will get a humorous ad that works. Connection with your audience is very very important, and you can't lose sight of that to make an ad thats just "funny".