Advertising Forum

Re: Advertisers shock tactics

Christopher Goddard — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:35:00 GMT

Shock ads are designed to convey a message to the audience. Usually this is a message of great importance whether it's about drink-driving or the dangers of knife crime. Is there a soft way of getting this message across? I don't know how anyone can watch the Think! Drink Driving ad without stopping to 'think' twice about their driving. A more recent ad showing a boy haunting the man who killed him is shocking and makes a good hard-hitting impact on it's viewers. Are we 'cotton-wool' wrapping our audiences? in this day and age we should be able to be more up front and open with these pressing issues. The Think ads which i mentioned above are very shocking and make an impact and you can't beat around the bush - speeding kills. There's no way they would be able to have the same impact on the viewer through a series of humorous ads or 'sensitive'. When these ads started coming out people were talking about them. At the end of the day, they work and reducing the 'shock factor' will reduce the impact on the audience. It is definitely worth taking that into account when considering the suitability of the ads content.

Re: Advertisers shock tactics

Thomasina Williams — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:02:57 GMT

Do you think that they have been forced to become more serious due to issues like political correctness and is this make the advertising industry duller?

Re: Advertisers shock tactics

CHRIS ARNOLD — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:45:37 GMT

I think shock ads were just a passing fad. Once a few people have shocked it's no longer different. Just boring. I think clients want to be seen as responsible and mature. I use to work on 18-30 at Saatchi &Saatchi, then it was cheap knob gags and ***. Now they are more serious.

Advertisers shock tactics

Thomasina Williams — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:17:20 GMT

Adverts are sometimes banned, or deemed unsuitable for the public. Do you feel that in modern times there is more pressure on advertisers to be sensitive, with the content of their adverts? If so, why do you think this is?