Do ads that have mistakes in them bother you? For example, in July Triathlete mag., pg. 19, they’ve run this same picture of Dave Scott on a bike with the drivetrain on the left side…of course, the negative is just flipped, but, I can’t seem to get past it. On the back cover, the TYR ad says it’s goggles are of " sleek, aerodynamic design and shape." Well, I guess that may be important if you use them on the bike, but, I thought they were to be used in the water. Maybe if you swim with your head out of the water, and swim fast enough, the aerodynamics are beneficial?
I’m just wondering where the ad editors are, or, if there are any, or, if they are being paid too much…they don’t seem to be paying attention.
its funny you posted this, as just this morning I was looking at an ad from Tri All 3 Sports, they have had the same bike box ad in every tri magazine for at least 8 years. You know, the one with the girl riding the bike box like its a bike. F’ing goofy!! Not to mention her positioning needs some tweaking!! Get a new ad!!!
Mistakes in ads or magazine articles, books, etc bother me too. I was reading Going Long this morning going to the bathroom and I noticed an extra word in a sentence on Gordo’s biography. It was something like, “Gordo is is an Ironman triathlete…”
I write ads for a living and as much as we try, mistakes are bound to happen. Even when they go through a hundred eyes before press. Funny story. Within the last year, Buick introduced a new vehicle and mispelled its name on the cover of the brochure that goes out to thousands of dealers and eventually the customer. They must have printed ten thousand of them. Ooops.
maybe it’s me, but last winter, I was annoyed every time I saw a certain car ad. Several guys leaving a ski resort, one guy in the back had his leg in a cast. The thing that bugged me was that they all had ski goggles on their heads. Yeah, I always drive home with my goggles perched on my forehead. What was this, some idiot in a meeting says, “oh, and make sure they all have goggles on so people know they’ve been skiing and our car is so sporty and has all wheel drive.” And the snow, the skis on the roof, the lodge and ski lift in the background didn’t tip me off?
“as much as we try, mistakes are bound to happen.”
Here’s a good one. Several years ago our Canadian government made up some fancy maps of Canada. These were to be distributed at embassies all over the world. It showed all the Canadian provinces except for one - Prince Edward Island was not on the map at all as if it didn’t exist. P.E.I. althought an island is also a distinct province and yet it was nowhere to be found on the map. Must have been a few red faces in government over this one.
Sometimes. The cool thing is, I spend many days with my feet up on a desk thinking of new ideas with my partner. Depending on the timeline this could go on for days/weeks. Then once my partner and I start getting good ones, he starts laying them out and we start putting the ads on the wall/door,etc - until sometimes they’re completely covered. The frustrating thing is how many good ideas get killed by the client. It’s demoralizing. You can spend weeks on an idea that you and all around you think is perfect only for the client to disagree and not trust the agency that they hired in the first place. Many times we’re working on a product whos demographic is much different than the client and the ideas reflect that. But the client isn’t thinking like the 15 year old girl whos going to be watching the spot. He’s thinking like the 55 year old jaded millionaire.
Ad people come from all backgrounds. The common theme to getting a job is having a portfolio - a book with all of your ads. I didn’t go to school for advertising but made up my own book with spec ads. Basically I just picked products randomly and made up ads. If you want for info, feel free to send me a private message.
I see this a lot with local signs, the worst is the YOUR vs. YOU’RE – they seem be screwing this up more and more lately. Just saw one yesterday, in fact. A very new, expensive looking sign in front of an apartment complex – “YOUR ALMOST HOME” or something of that nature (shudder). I’m sure they meant to say “You’re almost home”, as if, you want to live here, right? Or did they actually mean that it’s my “almost” home, not quite a real home?? Eh??
I saw that once - a furniture store billboard had a baseball diamond with the caption, “Touch all four bases and your home” I made it a point never to go there.
I notice this too. I have to believe that ads like this are created by people who are not professional advertisers - at least not full time. Probably someone who works at these companies who’s a jack-of-all-trades for communications.
Not a slam on those people. I’ve held that kind of position myself (albeit in different industries).
I would give Tyr the benefit of the doubt on using ‘aerodynamic’ to describe their goggles. Even though ‘hydrodynamic’ is the better word choice, many consumers may not understand that hydrodynamic is to water as aerodynamic is to air. Any goggle that is aerodynamic is probably pretty slippery under the water, too.
If your upset about people mixing up there words that sound the same its just to bad - their is nothing in you’re power too fix sum peoples bad habit’s. grin
The ad on the inside back cover of the July/August USA Triathlon Times is a good example. It’s got about 10 times the amount of copy it probably really needs, I read through it and still don’t really understnad what its selling, there poorly-constructed and run-on sentences and at least one error in punctuation.