There’s a method to how I write this weekly post.
I lick my finger and hold it up to see which way the wind is blowing. I do this metaphorically, of course. (I need dry fingers to type.)
But that’s the method. A radar game. What appears on my radar each week?
And this week, while there were some interesting currents on ageism and creative ways to set up creative departments, the biggest wind — a veritable hurricane — was Jaguar.
The teaser heard ’round the world fomented so many conversations on so many different media platforms, that I simply could not escape it.
All that said, I think the best way I can help this week is to provide a wee bit of context.
I call it, “A Brief History of Weird Ads.”
First things first, if you haven’t seen the Jaguar teaser called, “Copy Nothing,” watch it here.
Ok, it’s weird.
Midjourney, Photoleap a.i. ©robschwartzhelps
It reminded me of one of the first weird ads I recall seeing, Reeboks Let U.B.U. campaign.
A Chiat/Day classic, I remember this bursting on the scene with its weird casting, weird imagery, weird words for an ad (courtesy of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson), and weird spelling! This was a campaign for sneakers? Where were the athletes? Where were the courts and fields? Where were the close-up shots of the shoes?! This. Was. Weird.
That was followed up by another weird campaign for the carmaker, Infiniti. Made by Hill Holliday, this was a car campaign with no car. It was dubbed “Rocks and Trees” because that’s what it showed us: rocks and trees and rain and waves. It was a philosophical campaign that focused on the intent of Infiniti to create a new kind of luxury car brand — a Japanese luxury car brand. And while the world may have devoured the book, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” the world was somehow not ready for Zen car ads. It was too…weird.
Next up there was a weird campaign that tried to explain the internet (and the future of communications) without computers or screens or wires. It was for MCI, a telecommunications company, and it featured a then-six-year-old Anna Paquin and an epic and desolate New Zealand coastline. (All inspired by the wonderful film, “The Piano.”) And while the commercials do an incredible job of explaining the digital world we live in today, the audience had a hard time wrapping its head around the profound notion that, “…there will be no more there, there will only be here.”
(These ads are fantastic and truly hold-up, I think: ad number 1, ad number 2, and ad number 3. There are six in total and YouTube has the rest.)
Finally, there was the delicious weirdness of the Cadbury Gorilla. A chocolate bar ad sans chocolate, without morsels, and no cliche, beautiful 30-something woman enjoying a first bite. No, here we had a gorilla, a drum kit, and Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight.” Buda buh-duh buh-dum-dum boom!
Of course, there was outrage generated from all of these adverts when they first launched, just like there is outrage generated across the combined 160 million social media views of the Jaguar teaser.
So will all of this noise turn into sales for the Jags which won’t appear in showrooms until 2026?
Only time will tell.
For now, all we have is weirdness and outrage. Not often a recipe for success.
Rob Schwartz is the Chair of the TBWA New York Group and an executive coach who channels his creativity, experience and wisdom into helping others get where they want to be. This was originally posted on his Substack, RobSchwartzHelps, where he covers work, life, and creativity.
Header image: Simone Hutsch for Unsplash+
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