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I have just been forced to watch a 15 second ad for Woolworths Sunday Roast so that I could see grainy footage of a white truck running over a whole legion of innocent people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice on the Channel 9 news app.

Really? Does the marketing director of Woolworths actually think that this represents “cut through” that is meaningful and builds her/his brand? Will I actually run out and buy some meat? What a brand association disaster.

I agree, maybe I shouldn’t have been so ghoulish but I did get sucked into the quagmire of the whole horrible thing. I know that human nature is such that as a whole we are more inclined to engage with something negative than is positive – there are countless examples of this. Trading in human tragedy however is never good marketing, no matter what the metrics.

Isn’t it about time that the likes of SMH (that you actually pay a subscription for anyway) but force you to watch an ad for Ford Kluga  before you can see how Chris Froome ran up the road on last nights stage of the Tour de France were made to justify their value proposition as a business and hence command a fair fee for service, rather than take the irritating approach of jamming an ad in front of you. Not only is it a waste of time, it engenders negative feelings towards the brand being advertised as it is seen as intrusive and insensitive, especially when it portrays such shocking events as in Nice.

Guy Bicknell

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Guy Bicknell
The agency’s senior suit and more. With over 25 years brand development experience in Australia, Singapore & Japan, Guy offers the marketing knowledge, strategic insight and creative acumen needed to ensure your product & communications solutions have a winning edge.

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