Atomik Soapbox - Latest Comments in Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Sheryl Gwyther — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:36:37 -0000

These ads would only work the way they're intended on someone who is aware of reconciliation.org.au's intentions. Unfortunately, I suspect they fly right over the heads of people who might benefit from questioning their racism. It was a major boo-boo not to make the bottom line much bigger.

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Sheryl Gwyther — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:36:37 -0000

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Sean Riley — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:31:43 -0000

I'm in the tank for the anti-prejudice ad (the Gruen one) personally. The basic strategy is to make the audience hate the first three tellers of jokes, then transfer that hatred to the fourth. That's a solid strategy, it works immediately. I think it's a brilliant ad.
The reconciliation ones though fail for exactly the reason you stated. The text is too damn small.

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Sean Riley — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:31:43 -0000

The reconciliation ones though fail for exactly the reason you stated. The text is too damn small.

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Alan — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:30:24 -0000

The Gruen ad completely misses the point. It's post-justified for one thing, but besides that the whole premise is wrong.
Sure, prejudice is a bad thing most of the time, but sometimes prejudice is a necessary defence mechanism. It's helps you to avoid potentially bad situations. So the blanket generalisation already has problems.
Beyond that, the ad tries to compare prejudice against unavoidable things with prejudice against life choices. You can't choose whether you're gay or black, you do have control over whether or not you're fat. Thereby the ad fails at the first hurdle.

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Alan — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:30:24 -0000

The Gruen ad completely misses the point. It's post-justified for one thing, but besides that the whole premise is wrong.

Sure, prejudice is a bad thing most of the time, but sometimes prejudice is a necessary defence mechanism. It's helps you to avoid potentially bad situations. So the blanket generalisation already has problems.

Beyond that, the ad tries to compare prejudice against unavoidable things with prejudice against life choices. You can't choose whether you're gay or black, you do have control over whether or not you're fat. Thereby the ad fails at the first hurdle.

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

James Duthie — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:47:40 -0000

I've got mixed feelings on these campaigns. I think the reconcilliation message is actually extremely powerful. The strategy is very good. However, the execution lets the strategy down badly. White font against a white background for the controversial message/question, and tiny font dedicated to the actual call-to-action (visit the web site). Shame...
I also liked the premise of the fat prejudice campaign. It almost worked for me. But in the end I just couldn't place obesity on the same level of racism and genocide, and I'm not sure I ever will (no matter how many obesity discrimination campaigns they may run in the future).

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Raena Jackson Armitage — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:35:21 -0000

Yeah, I saw the gang one as a poster in a railway station, and even with the benefit of being able to stop and look it took me awhile to find the text. There are some video versions that I think do a heaps better job, but I haven't seen these on TV.

There is no value in getting those of us without prejudice to agree that prejudice is bad.

I'm not so sure... if anything I feel like it's the kind of campaign that's *deliberately* preaching to the choir. It's reasonably well-known that people respond well to an ad for a product they've already bought -- strengthening the idea that the consumer *did* make the right decision.
This is not to say that an ideological decision like acceptance or discrimination ought to be reduced to the level of a product, just that advertising to your existing market doesn't have to be about changing somebody's mind.
Of course this is all moot when you can't see the bloody thing.

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

James Duthie — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:47:40 -0000

I also liked the premise of the fat prejudice campaign. It almost worked for me. But in the end I just couldn't place obesity on the same level of racism and genocide, and I'm not sure I ever will (no matter how many obesity discrimination campaigns they may run in the future).

Re: Which of these campaigns is a failure?

Raena Jackson Armitage — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:35:21 -0000

There is no value in getting those of us without prejudice to agree that prejudice is bad.

This is not to say that an ideological decision like acceptance or discrimination ought to be reduced to the level of a product, just that advertising to your existing market doesn't have to be about changing somebody's mind.

Of course this is all moot when you can't see the bloody thing.