The BrandForward Blog

When the heart of good advertising can be captured succinctly and brilliantly in a three-minute YouTube video, it kinda makes you wonder about the actual value of spending four years sleeping through advertising classes.

And kinda makes me glad I didn’t bother.

One of my favorite bloggers, Edward Boches (http://edwardboches.com) posted a link to one of the greatest moments in television history. Nope, not James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return. Although that definitely could qualify. But of all the moments in TV history that I could watch over and over and still need a Kleenex the 50th time I see it, an episode of AMC’s Mad Men takes the honors.

What made this clip such a great moment was how it took a critical (and oftentimes forgotten) advertising philosophy and executed it in a way that reminds me why I got into advertising in the first place. It’s about getting to the truth and communicating what’s real. It’s about connecting with the consumer at the deepest level. It’s about not just getting into the consumer’s head, but also into their heart. And when the stars align, into their soul.

I’ve seen both creative and account people get lost in a sea of analytics, deadlines, billable targets, and executional mandatories and forget what really matters. What makes advertising matter. When we do our job right, we can turn a simple product or service into an emotional experience.

As advertisers we add a magical ingredient that no tangible product could ever have on its own. We tell a story that makes a connection. We help the consumer see value beyond the price tag. It’s no longer something they can own, it’s something they can live. We take a product that exists in the outer world and make it a part of their inner world. As humans we’re driven to define ourselves through association, and we begin to LOVE the products we choose, because they fulfill our need for identity.

As advertisers we help inanimate objects and everyday services gain entrance to a special place in the consumer’s heart and mind where the identity lives. We help build a consumer’s “brand family,” the group of products and services a consumer is connected to, has an emotional bond with, and will have a hard time abandoning.

I love how Mad Men demonstrated so eloquently the difference between agencies that create advertising and agencies that build that amazing connection. The difference between agencies that build powerpoints and agencies that build evangelists.

We all want to make a difference in our world and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the value of what we do. Thanks to Edward for digging up a reminder that as advertising “inventors” we bring something powerful and beautiful to the table. What we do doesn’t just create revenue and profits. We don’t just create ads and reports and powerpoints.

We create MEANING.

Photos and videos from Mad Men are no longer available for embedding, but you can check it out by following the link below to YouTube. Watch the short clip of Don Draper’s presentation to Kodak. It’s three minutes well-spent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY

Hey kids, here’s your lesson for the day: The first rule of the schoolyard:

“TRYING TO BE COOL IS UNCOOL.”

That’s why I’m perplexed that Crispin Porter + Bogusky seemed to forget this simple principle when they developed the new “I’m a PC” commercials for Microsoft.

The French have a word for the natural way some people can look cool without trying, and ultimately draw others to respect and admire them. It’s called “sprezzatura.” The sad, painful fact for Microsoft is that Mac has this in spades. And the new “I’m a PC” commercials make it clear that Microsoft wants it. Really, really wants it. Which means they really, really don’t have it. If Microsoft wanted to emerge from the quagmire of doltness, they should have developed a campaign that takes what’s great about themselves and pwned it. Not try to own what’s great about Mac and throw a 60-second masquerade ball hoping no one will ask to see what’s under the costumes.

In grand fashion, the Microsoft “I’m a PC” commercials try to establish the company as “a cool kid, too,” but unwittingly erect a flashing neon arrow that screams “I’m a wannabe! Don’t you wannabe a wannabe just like me?” Right. Um. Yeah. And then let’s go hang out behind the band hall during lunch. With Ballmer.

Sorry, folks in the CP+B research department, but the whole “I’m a PC” concept comes off looking like a Cincinnati defensive tackle. Shame on the creative team for coming up with this testament to desperate miscellany. Shame on Account Planning for letting it slide. And shame on whoever approved the crowbar shunting of celebrity cameos. To say they were “awkward” is being nice. When Eva Longoria and Tony Parker popped on screen – the ick factor was oozing beyond the bandage. It felt like the dorky kid’s big sister marched out onto the playground to scold everyone into being nice to him. Yes, and the minute she walks away someone will be rolling him around in the mud and dying his hair pink in the boys’ bathroom.

Oddly enough, the celebrity presence didn’t raise my respect for PCs. It only lowered it for the celebrities. I was embarrassed for them. I was embarrassed for Microsoft. Was there no one in this whole creative process who stepped back and pointed out the obvious? It was like Michael Jackson was about to have another plastic surgery and everyone in the room was either nodding and saying “sounds like a great idea!” or just looking the other way with a smirk.

The best part of the “I’m a PC” commercials is the irony. The spots reinforce in rainbow colors Microsoft’s position of being on the outside of the cool crowd looking in. And Apple didn’t even have to pay for it. Microsoft is trying so hard to connect with culture and humanity, but just like Data’s quest for humanity in First Contact, Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” is little more than clumsy attempts to graft bits of human skin onto robotic limbs. Is it a coincidence that sci-fi’s iconic android has more personality than the PC world’s own humanoid icon? There’s really only one thing worse than trying to look cool when you’re not. It’s trying to look human when you’re not.

At the end of Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” masquerade ball, the costumes will come off, the poser will be exposed, and the kids on the playground will show no mercy.