Yesterday, our friends at Ypulse tweeted on a PSA by DLKW London trying to get 16-18-year-olds to use condoms when they have sex. The video really does grab my attention and reel me into the message, but the copy at the end left me speechless... and not in a good way.
COI Teenage Pregnancy Spot
The culprit in this ad: "Want respect? Use a condom."
WHAT THE F***?
The visuals are screaming "WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK YOU MAKE SEXUAL DECISIONS THAT COULD LEAD TO PREGNANCY!" and then the copy talks about a completely different thing: respect. When a girl gets pregnant because she doesn't use a condom, I don't say to myself, "Oh, I don't respect her." I say, "Oh, she made a poor decision." I think that the respect line works with the drinking side of this, but not the pregnancy side. I've had plenty of friends, classmates, etc. who have been preggers and I am not going to judge them for it.
Some of my critics may argue that when drinking is put into the mix with sex that respect and the anti-unwanted pregnancy messages work hand-in-hand, but I think it all just becomes a jumbled mess that ruins the simplicity of the visual.
In other words, when your visuals are saying one thing, and your copy goes a different direction, you get: AD FAIL!
Does anyone have other examples of situations where advertising copy has ruined the rest of the message?
No comments:
Post a Comment