2nd Year Work  - Online Blog "The Shit Awards"

The Shit Blog

Brief


In our second year we were given an assignment where we were asked to create an online blog that specialised in critiquing bad adverts in circulation. This was to be completed in all the media genres namely; Print, Outdoor, Digital, Alternative and Online.

Concept


The concept we had gone with on our project was a satirical blog based on an award style critique given by three fictional judges that we had created for the blog. We affectionately named the blog “The Shit” after the slang term that young people use when referring to anything awesome. However our approach was more a play on words as these adverts really are ‘The Shit’ and not in the good way, the winner obviously being the worst one.

Rationale

This rationale is based upon the winner of The Shit awards and why we had chosen that particular advert
The advert we have chosen to re-execute is in the digital media category.

The viral screensaver used by the University of the Witwaterstrand in their marketing campaign to get more students out of high school to apply and study at tertiary level as opposed to not taking up the opportunity resulting from being unable to chose a career path or a lack of ambition with regards to studying further at tertiary level.

The strategy behind the current advert is to market the detriment of life without a degree to these students by showing life from the perspective of people who have to live life without a degree such as construction workers and rent-a-cops.

The problems we are addressing with the re-execution of this advert is the strategy behind the visual communication as well as the copywriting and how these two elements are lacking in resolve and synergy with the brand message communication objective. With regards to the visual representation of the ad’s message, the aesthetic is translated in a substandard ‘home video’ visual. Additionally the copywriting is of an elementary tone and register which does not sustain the message that the institution will provide students with the ability to further their education and in turn their life.

We have changed the visual of the ad to be based around the concept of a tongue-in-cheek joke about those who do not obtain degrees. By using the detriment of life without a degree in a humorous way, students can relate to the idea of the benefit of obtaining a degree. In addition to that, the copy in the advert stands as a call to action for the intended target audience to take a proactive step in applying for a wits degree and in doing so are able to empower their future which ‘starts now’.

The form of this digital media will be given as a set of screen savers with different jokes that have the same idea and the same copywriting call to action. An example of another advert will be a picture of a pizza box and the copy: “what is the difference between a pizza and person with no degree?... One can support a family”.

Contributing Team Members

Ross Cohen Visual/Web Design
Mikhael Cohen Visual/Web Design

Executions

Website Copy 

About Us

The Shit is an advertising awards blog, showcasing the best of the worst in substandard advertising. Eight carefully selected adverts are exhibited and critiqued by our panel of judges. The panel of three revered and renowned judges consists of Jubel Von Bronckhorst, John Katzini and Meryl May. Each judge, well respected in their own right will deliver critique in their expertise and ultimately the winner will prevail as The Shit. Finally one of the eight adverts will be chosen for re-execution by the panel themselves, this being the ultimate praise.

Introductory Copy

In accordance with Rebrand 100, The Shit awards are proudly bought to you in our interactive critique blog. Along with the esteemed panel of judges the public are invited to engage in showcasing The Shit.

Plax

JvB: Plax, one of South Africa’s leading mouthwash brands have teamed up with the third Reich marketing strategists to formulate this surefire display of mouth germs’ demise. Plax’s strategy is marketed at health conscious adults. There is not much in this print campaign that depicts either health, or a healthy consciences lifestyle. I suppose the firing squad coupled with an outrageously gloomy setting might just scare you into buying the product

JK:  a firing squad entirely prepared for death by the bullet and one man’s germs being spared the grief. The image of the gloomy setting communicated an idea of death by germs, in no way is the visual aesthetic communicating fresh breath or healthy gums

MM: “kills the germs that cause bad breath” – the brand message is communicating the product’s benefits of a germ-free fresh smelling mouth, the visuals however do not resonate with the brand as the extreme measure of a firing squad implicated negative associations and will trigger adverse connotations in the consumer’s mind.

Lunch Bar

JvB: marketing an appetite quenching chocolate bar requires pin point communication s the product occupies a specific place in the mind of the consumer. Mixing connotations of a shark attack, however shocking will detract from your original communication objective as an appetizing “man size” treat.

JK: representing the new ‘man size’ lunch bar in peril of shark attack to demonstrate the chocolate bar’s size is an honest cause for concern. Aside from the natural emotion of primal fear evoked from such an image, showing a chocolate bar at sea is almost bad as a mixed metaphor.

MM: well, from a copywriting perspective an advert without any from of reference is just an image. Although this technique can be strongly implemented, the ambiguity of the image leaves the advertisement with no direction other than communicating a new chocolate bar that has undergone somewhat grossly exaggerated size change.

Teasers

JvB: The Johannesburg strip clubs have adopted a rather unique strategy behind their marketing. With a tongue-in-cheek humor, exploitation of “sex sells” is at a near cliché level. Typically the strategy behind the marketing on these billboards is to place them in high traffic areas attracting attention and those with enough money to ‘come and indulge’. No pun intended. Essentially, this outdoor example is of no difference excepting that the usual ‘come and indulge’ has been turned into a ‘come and inspect’. I am fairly sure that the last thing on a heterosexual man’s mind in a strip club is the chance of his blonde showpiece having a showpiece of her own.

JK: if sex sells than Calvin Klein has got nothing on this billboard. Furthermore, a brand such as this could have nothing more than the subject matter and a logo and that would suffice. The arrangement however is strange and seemingly cluttered. It is almost as though all of the information on the billboard is disturbing ‘the view’ which portrays more of a fetish type effort than a strip club.

MM: As Jubel mentioned above, the last thing on a man’s mind in a strip club is a hermaphrodite, more so, an Olympic one on trial. Aside from the tastelessness of exploiting a rather touchy subject at best (pun intended), downplaying a national hero seems like a “sleazy” strategy to me.

Renault

JvB: The strategy is to claim that the Renault Megane sport is superior in its segment by marketing its power. Through the use of South Africa’s power crisis, Renault communicate the car as an extremely powerful car with no “power shortage”. The intended audience for a car such as this may well be the same intended audience of a power out, a time at which they might regret having bought the car and not the generator. The message is ambiguous, and because the ad is extremely copy driven, one might be left thinking Eskom are making a joke of the unfortunate circumstance – good thing they reaffirm the message with “Renault Megane sport – 169kw” obviously the leader in its class no?

JK: A decal on a billboard that traps enough sunlight to glow at night is a fantastic concept. It’s such a pity this genius was left with the team behind this ad. Clearly the lack of imagery enforces the copy – a front on which the ad is definitely lacking. Perhaps the most unfortunate part of this entire billboard is the choice of font, resembling a half-mast attempt at a bubble font for a sports car, apparently the best in its segment

MM: The woes of miscommunication. The saddest part of miscommunication is the lost look on your target market’s faces as they ‘whizz’ past your billboard contemplating the ambiguous content they are attempting to decipher. Using only copy to demonstrate a ‘power crisis relevant’ concept should display courage and tenacity as opposed to a guessing game lasting the same time it took to drive past the billboard.

Energizer

JvB: The digital media market is fast becoming the quickest and most accessible forms of innovative brand communication. This energizer ad aimed at communicating the power behind the batteries makes use of this interactive platform, perhaps too interactive though. This increasingly popular platform has been maximized to its potential forgetting that user ability is key in this exercise leaving room for error when involving the external ‘sleep’ control the batteries have over the computer. Hopefully, no one is working on a massive project when suddenly the ejection of a random pair of batteries leaves the user staring at their reflection in the black of their powerless machine.

JK: Visually, making use of batteries and computer power comes across as a natural association. Moreover when lithium batteries are concerned, yet the specific arrangement of having a randomly placed battery compartment come across as an unresolved aesthetic. The compartment and batteries are disproportionate to the rest of the items on the desktop leading the eye to an uncomfortable position when looking at it. Furthermore, the composition of the compartment in relation to the computer’s battery life information display increases the gap in the communication objective by leaving the consumer in limbo before making the given association.

MM: perhaps a strong copy line to back up the ‘widget’ might increase the purposefulness behind the brand message, but the sheer lack of any sort of reference to the brand, other than the label on the battery displays the confusion one might encounter upon receiving this digital media ad. Not to mention what happens when the computer suddenly turns off.

Wits

JvB: I became rather disappointed to in the knowledge that a major advertising agency was behind this media. In their research they found that students out of high school do not further their education as a result of either confusion or plain laziness. Using the daunting prospect of life without a degree they aim to inspire students to study, at WITS. The foremost issue with this strategy is that marketing behind a computer screen is hardly ably to address an issue like a lacking ambition. Secondly, through communicating a mundane job of an uneducated construction worker lacks in the impact required to deliver the tertiary institutions message.

JK: The platform of digital media is one that requires intelligent composition and use of subject matter in order to achieve the desired effect. This advert is in the form of a screen saver. The image is lacking in any sort of visual resolve and composition that the student might in fact get bored at the prospect of watching the screen saver no less applying at the intended university. Aesthetically, the ‘home video’ look and feel detract from the message as it communicates the circumstance as opposed to the associations made with the product, being a degree obtained from WITS.

MM: The copy in this ad adopts a rather elementary tone and register. This contradicts the entire message of achieving an esteemed education as the copy does not create that immediate association. The use of grammar is first level and fails to communicate that without a WITS degree; the student will not excel and reach his/her true potential.

Feed SA

JvB: Many NGOs must adopt a marketing strategy that will shock the viewer into being compelled through agency or guilt to help the helpless and get involved. Although the frequency of this campaign reached its full potential, its message does not follow suit as certain elements of this campaign were not completely resolved in strategy. The communication objective is to show ‘affluent’ shoppers how easy it is to feed the hungry. Yet, what happens when the monthly shopping covers up the beckoning guilt stuck to the bottom of the trolley? Then the same issue that the very ad is designed to address being “don’t walk away” is repeated in exact fashion; the shopper shoes to ignore and swiftly moves along with daily life – in this case grocery shopping to feed their privileged and more fortunate family.

JK: This advert is the guilt factor 101. Much like Kevin Carter’s photograph of the Sudanese baby and the vulture, the shocking imagery is aimed at coercing the wealthy into taking a stand against impoverished hunger. Indeed this is the best and only way to achieve such impact. Visually, the pure shock of a homeless child in your trolley might be enough to keep you from shopping at all; however, the exaggerated use of stereotype weakens the impact of the message.

MM: “see how easy feeding the hungry can be?” … “and see how easy covering them up can be too? An NGO ad should use the guilt angle as much as possible, but when your message lasts the length of the walk from isle nine to eleven, how effective using such an image to show the plight of the hungry?

Clorets

JvB: The shopping mall arena has become a saturated collage of brand clutter. Food retail outlets are no different excepting that the clutter is edible. By direct process of elimination, if your ad is not visible, and even less decipherable, the clutter will make mince meat of that brand. Strategically aimed at communicating the benefit of Clorets as the breath freshener that targets even the toughest of adverts, this alternative campaign lacks in the synergy required to power the brand’s message directly to its relevant audience as a result of poor visual communication and a lack of copywriting to orientate the consumer with the brand.

JK: The campaigns message is that Clorets targets bad breath, typically caused by these infamous symbols of bad breath – and yes, it seems as though coffee is one of them – along with garlic and of course cigarettes. The visual communication in this ad lacks in intent and in fact creates more confusion than anything else. Vectorised images of stereotypical “bad breath” symbols are placed directly in line with the viewer’s line of sight causing ambiguity as to what exactly the images might be, such as the cigarette in the ashtray which resembles more of a bio-hazard warning then a target for Clorets Eliminator.

MM: placing what vaguely resembles a cross section of an onion in the crisps isle s questionable in terms of context, but highly questionable in terms of effectiveness as the image is uncertain and the copy so small I struggled just to see it, let alone critique it

Intro paragraph

Welcome to the Shit awards website, here you will find showcased the best of the worst in substandard advertising in four specific media platforms. An esteemed panel of expert judges will provide professional critique on the adverts eventually nominating the Exemplar of The Shit.

Judging Criteria

These are The Shit awards judging criterion and guidelines:

The strategy outcomes are:

Brand message is well linked to other elements of the advert such as the visual design as well as the copywriting and overall outcome of what is conveyed.

The strategy carried out in the advert is closely linked to the marketing strategy of the brand creating synergy between strategy and creativity, ensuring the advert and its core communication objective reach the intended audience.

The visual outcomes:

The visual outcomes will judge how the advert makes use of the medium as well as how the specific visual elements of advertising are resolved through their use or lack thereof.

These visual elements will be judged on how they are resolute within the adverts. These elements include: properties of subject matter, special and temporal layout and the relationship of objects to each other

The Copywriting outcomes:

How the advert is played by copy and how it contributes to overall message of the advert in relationship to the other elements visible.

How the copywriting resonates with the strategic intent of the marketing strategy as well as the visual communication objectives defined in the strategy.

Gold and Silver Ribbons

These ribbons have been allocated as the signifiers of standard in the overall positioning in each category:

Gold ribbon: the advert in the specific category that is least able to resolve the elements used for judging them

Silver ribbon: the advert that manages to better resolve synergy between the visual and copywriting elements as well as the strategic outcomes and communication objectives intended in the advert.