Dear CMO:
We’re marketers. We’re edgy. We love cool, we live hip, and swing for the upper deck. That’s why we usually dress in black, which is a subject for another post on another day. But this is also why we love to go out on the absolute edge of creative license and pick up our customers by their narrow lapels and shake them out of their DVR-induced stupor. Breakthrough. Edgy.
Unless anyone gets offended, of course, in which case we’ll apologize and pull the ad, pronto.
Am I the only one in the room who says we should never, ever apologize for our work? Look. One of two things usually happens. The first is that we didn’t do our homework up front. We created a piece of work that didn’t just fail to resonate with our audience, it actually made them angry. That’s a not very fine line. That’s called “blowing it completely” by many, including the CEO. The second likely reason is that we’re just spineless wusses. We did our homework, created solid work that sold who we are and who we’re not — and when a group of people who don’t even buy our products complains, we retreat like a pack of yelping Chihuahuas.
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DISCLAIMER:
NO CHIHUAHUAS, ACTUAL OR VIRTUAL, WERE HARMED IN THE IDEATION, CREATION OR PUBLICATION OF THIS BLOG POST. VIVA LA CHIHUAHUA. YO QUIERO TACO BELL.
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Thankfully, here at Note to CMO, we buy Offensive Post Offsets, allowing us the latitude to put up posts like this one. Other bloggers, often in the developing world, will then write less incendiary posts to balance the blogosphere out a little. It seems to work fine and is completely above board, so I’m told, so I can’t see what’s wrong with that.
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Key Takeaways:
> Messaging isn’t accidental. At least it shouldn’t be. If you’ve done your homework, stayed on message, and tested your creative, you shouldn’t have much to fear. If you haven’t, then you’ve left yourself open, haven’t you?
> Understand that special interest groups are well organized and can generate more emails based on less understanding than in any other time in history. Look at the Verizon ad again. Urban junk yard pit bulls are chained up for a good reason. Is this really offensive, PETA? Really?
> You stand to gain more by sticking to your guns than by surrendering to the appearance of resistance. Backing down rarely wins converts. So it’s important to actually do your homework up front, isn’t it?
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Clearly, this past week has seen more than the average number of full scale retreats. Ad Age and others have mentioned the not very high profile campaigns by Snickers, Nike and Verizon that have been pulled in the face of complaints vaguely associated with the complainers. After looking at all of them, I still don’t get it.
If you’re apologizing, you didn’t do your homework.
Regards.