Ad Agencies Wrestle With Coloring Campaigns Red, White and Blue
It’s everywhere you look: flags and patriotic signs are being displayed in an unprecedented wave of patriotic fervor in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
Some advertisers have jumped on the bandwagon, too.
Flip on the television and there’s General Motors in a commercial saying it will “Keep America Rolling” with “interest-free financing thru Oct. 31 on all new cars and trucks.”
In its newest TV spots, Miller Brewing Co. features people from all over the county displaying various patriotic signs,not waving cold beers. The company’s logo is discreetly displayed in the corner of the screen,the only hint who the message is from.
And there’s Southern California Ford dealers with a message to motorists on seemingly every local radio station. A voice-over says Ford and “America’s great companies” are just “doing their part” to move the country forward,through an interest-free deal for a limited time.
Meanwhile, more locally, Pazanti Home Mortgage Corp. in Huntington Beach, has replaced its traditional sales-oriented billboard with one that features a giant American flag, and Newport Beach-based Pacific Avalon Yacht Charters is promoting its wedding packages under type that reads: “God Bless America” and “United We Stand.”
Against this background, OC’s advertising agencies have been weighing the consequences of such moves for their clients. They say it’s dangerous territory.
“It’s a really fine line,” said Ray Baird, president of Irvine-based RiechesBaird Advertising. “If it’s done right from a creative standpoint, it comes across very well. But you can really get into trouble if it comes off looking contrived. From our end, we don’t advise it.”
Added Monte Zator, executive vice president at Irvine-based T & O; Group: “If it comes across as self-promotional, I think it can potentially backfire on brand perception.”
On the other hand, Mark Weinfeld, senior vice president of strategic planning at Bates USA West, said there is definitely an opportunity for companies to show they’re connected to their community and customers in a way they haven’t before. Particularly since throughout the nation, and OC, there’s a heavy patriotic sentiment and flags are flying on everything from cars to homes to gas stations.
But, he said, “jumping on a patriotism bandwagon could have a definite negative spin,” which is the reason his clients have not launched patriotic campaigns.
“It trivializes the seriousness of the issue,” Weinfeld said.
Weinfeld added that companies could be perceived as “chest beating” if they, for instance, repeatedly push how much money they’ve raised or donated to relief efforts in their marketing materials.
“I think a lot of people will make that mistake,” he said.
Roger Feldman, associate creative director at Marshall Advertising & Design, Costa Mesa, agrees that it’s risky to push the American theme suddenly in marketing materials. He said, if handled correctly, a patriotic campaign “could” result in consumers having a more positive view of your company and its products, which could result in increased business.”
“The obvious downside is, if handled incorrectly, an advertiser runs the huge risk of coming off as self-serving, crass and, potentially worse, exploitative of the terrorists’ victims and the millions who grieve for them,” Feldman said. “For this reason, our client Yamaha has chosen not to incorporate a patriotic message in its current advertising and promotions, even though a number of Yamaha’s customers are presently in the military or are veterans.”
There’s no question that advertising is facing heightened sensitivities these days, with everyone scrutinizing their current and future moves.
“It has tempered our approach creatively,” said Jon Gothold, partner at Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising. “We don’t want to be doing stuff that seems trite. Now is not the time to be glib and superficial in any communications.”
Immediately following the national tragedy a number of local companies pulled or swapped out ads because they suddenly had become distasteful or inappropriate.
That includes JD Edwards, a client of Costa Mesa-based neoBrands. Rick Sharga, executive vice president, said the agency scrambled to pulled ads that featured an executive holding a sign that read “Collaborate or Die.”
“We worked with a number of publications to alter the placard to ‘Collaborate and Thrive,’ and ultimately replaced the campaign with all-text ads,” Sharga said.
RiechesBaird also went with text ads for client Santa Ana-based Survivair, which makes breathing gear for firefighters. The company’s print advertisements normally feature firemen in action. However, Baird said, Survivair replaced them with tribute messages because the company didn’t want consumers to feel that they were trying to capitalize on the tragedy.
And now,more than a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,even tribute messages are slowing down.
“Right after (the attacks), the second week, there was a heck of lot of tribute-type ads. Now it’s kind of died down, because there was so much being done,” Baird said.
RiechesBaird, as well as other agencies and companies, now are asking themselves a few critical questions about advertising, particularly if it pushes an American theme: Is it being done in the right taste? Is it being done for the right reasons? Does it make sense for the company?
Executives at Pazanti asked themselves those questions before the company transformed its billboard on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach into an American flag with the words “God Bless America” across the top and the company’s logo and telephone number in the lower right corner, according to Rachelle Pazanti, executive vice president.
She said the company wanted to “put its financial motivation” on hold and show its support for the nation.
“We’ve gotten great feedback,” Pazanti said. “We did have one person that mentioned basically that we were just trying to jump on the bandwagon and make some money off it. And that’s absolutely not the case. Definitely our motivation is to just fly the flag with everyone else in America.”
Pazanti’s not alone.
Throughout Orange County, flags and patriotic messages are posted on everything from cars to freeway overpasses to businesses and homes. Many believe that those actions are good ways to show support and bring people together.
But when advertisers try to stretch the concept of “freedom” or force a message about patriotism or sympathy into a sales-oriented ad, neoBrands’ Sharga said, it will “very likely result in negative consumer reaction.”
General Motor’s campaign, for instance, was recently blasted by Bob Garfield, a critic for trade journal Advertising Age, for being too opportunistic and self-serving.
To avoid any hostile scenarios, Bates USA West sat down and analyzed its work for client Hyundai. The automotive company for some time has pushed the “freedom of America’s best warranty” in its campaign. The agency decided to let it run as is.
“The idea of freedom was kept in the context of a worry-free, hassle-free mentality,” Weinfeld said. “If we took it to a higher level of freedom where you started using icons of patriotic freedom our indications were that was going overboard. You could not trivialize something that important to people.”
While the ad community is putting everything under a microscope at the moment, ad execs don’t expect that to become the norm.
“There’s a hypersensitivity right now for good reason, but I don’t think that it will last forever,” Weinfeld said. n
