Pros and cons of creative ads

Focusing on creative advertisements can be effective, thanks to social networking. When audiences see original and funny commercials, they pass them to their friends, post them on Youtube or write about them in their blogs. These commercials can quickly reach a large audience and create buzz without any cost. They can also be more effective, because audiences take the initiative to watch the commercials, instead of being forced to watch during TV programs.
Some of the creative commercials can be very knowledgeable at the same time. They deliver clear brand and company image, and educate consumers on product features and benefits. These commercials are very likely to bring the consumers to the trial stage. Some commercials may not deliver the product knowledge, but they generate interests. Audiences may like the commercials enough that they will do more research on the company or product, and eventually try the product.
In many situations, advertisements are not for generating sales. They could be used only to remind consumers that they are still around. For companies that have already established their brand identities, such commercials will bring a large amount of awareness that fulfill that purpose.
In February 2009, “Jack in the Box” launched a series of TV commercials showing that the CEO, Jack, was hit by a bus. The TV commercials were made to look like real TV interviews and cell phone videos to give viewers a serious-looking and funny effect. In many clips, they did not mention neither the products nor promotions. The objective of this campaign was not to increase sales, but to generate awareness and remind their customers that “Jack in the Box” was still there. The campaign was a big success. People went to their special websites to watch all the commercials and waited for new commercials to release. The results were beyond their expectation. Not only did the campaign bring awareness, sales also increased.
However, not all creative advertisements can receive results like “Jack in the Box”. Some advertisements may be focusing too much on creativity, and they don’t show connection with the product or company. These advertisements are every effective in attracting attentions, but the audiences could be confused because they don’t see the representation of the product or brand identity; therefore, the messages are not effectively delivered to them. The Microsoft commercial staring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates is a good example. It generated a great amount of buzz and publicity, but it did little for the company. The commercial did not tell the audiences what the messages were, and how it linked with Microsoft. Many people say it was confusing and pointless.
In some cases, when the advertisements are too creative or powerful, they overpower the messages. Audiences only pay attention to the advertisement itself, either ignore or don’t remember the product. It is very common for advertisements using sexual appeals. The PS3 print advertisement, “Thumb for Penis”, has been passed to people all over the world. However, instead of paying attention or talking about the product, people pass it around because of the shocking image. The product itself became less important compared to the image.
Some people may even find the image offensive and disturbing, and it is another side effect of creative advertisements. When advertisements are too creative, they sometimes become difficult for people to accept. Also, people have very different tastes in designs and styles. Advertisements that are appealing to some people, could be repelled by others. Many people are saying that the new Tabasco “Singing Pepperonis” commercial is very creepy. I would look away or change channel whenever the commercial is on. The singing faces remind me of burned faced and are very scary. Because the negative feeling is associated with a food product, I think it would have a negative impact on sales.
Even good creative advertisements can lose their powers. Creative advertisements can be very powerful when audiences see them only a few times. Companies that are happy with the results and returns on their advertisements may run them for too long, and the initial positive impact fades away. Sometime audiences will be annoyed by watch it over and over again. The famous 1984 Apple SuperBowl commercial was only showed once, but people are still talking about it to this day. If Apple decided to run it over and over again, the powerful images might lose its effects at the end. On the other hand, I think the “I’m an Apple, I’m a PC” campaign is losing its initial power. At the beginning of the campaign, people were excited to see the new commercials and talk about them a lot, but are getting tired of the humor. The commercials are not showed as frequently as they were used to, although new ones are still been produced.