Tums targets the S&M segment
Now that the hype over this year’s SuperBowl ‘advertainment’
has subsided, it’s worth noting that some of the deplorable
advertising practices we see during the Big Game never really
go away. Specifically, the impulse to hurt, abuse, and
humiliate your target audience to get attention with a cheap
laugh.
The most basic, simple, truth of advertising is that in order
to change behavior (i.e., sell your product) you have to make
an emotional connection with your target. That means they
have to identify with your ad, and that identification has to
link to your brand. Making them laugh doesn’t make an
emotional connection if you’re laughing at them– just the
opposite, in fact.
Tums has a new campaign out that is an exemplar of this Three
Stooges school of bad advertising. Heartburn is painful,
right? And food causes the pain, right? So let’s have a guy
who’s being beaten to death by his spicy chicken wing. That
will make you think about pain, and Tums. Bet the Powerpoint
for that creative presentation was a piece of cake to write.
But if I’m the target for this ad, who am I supposed to
identify with? If it’s the guy in the ad (and who else could
it be?) the neurons that cause me to feel empathy with the
feelings of others are way off the charts on the negative
side. My face hurts, it’s covered with greasy sauce, and I’m
feeling humiliated as my friends stare at me because I’m a
helpless doofus.
Since I haven’t seen the brief for this campaign, maybe I’m
all wrong about the target. Maybe the target is the S&M
segment, not heartburn sufferers.
But I doubt it. And I doubt if this will sell very much Tums.
By the way, there actually was one really great SB ad. Check out the one Google did.
