Accentuate the Positive. Forget the negative

I have noticed a new crop of broadcast media ads that do a miserable job of hawking their clients’ products. Let’s take a look at a few of these.

Burger King Corporation

It is already bad enough that the oversized plastic-coated, bobble-headed ‘King’ elicits a ‘gut’ response; ‘man, that looks creepy.’ Now, Burger King has chosen to associate underlying messages of death and destruction with their services and food products.

The first ad campaign features urban moms hiring a hitmom to oust the ‘King’; to make the hit’ slow and painful. What does a slow, painful (hit), aka (murder), have to do with marketing fast food? Agreeably, the stuff can cause a slow, painful, artery-clogged death.

The second ad campaign features three moms in a minivan, tempting to ‘run down the King’.
Agreeable, the ‘King’s food may be King’s road kill from time to time, but what does extreme road rage, aka murder, have to do with fast food?

This is negative branding and lacks taste. (figuratively)

Force Flex Bags, The Glad Products Company

A couple of bank robbers get nabbed when they take too long stuffing the Force-Flex bag with everything but the kitchen sink. The advertising agency for Force-Flex chose a ‘bank robbery’ as the heart of their concept.

This is a negative message.

Wendy’s International Group of people is in a hospital setting. Their mouths are missing, and they have to communicate by writing, suggesting that their ability to use their mouths was removed because they did not eat at a Wendy’s agency; instead, Wendy’s chose to use a rehabilitation clinical setting for the heart of their concept.

While rehabilitation can be a positive step in the right direction, a major fast food chain should not base its branding on rehab.

This is both tasteless and negative.

Nationwide Insurance

Looking through the eyes of a Nationwide representative, you see a normal home. Moments later, the house is in flames, cars at an intersection start crashing, and finally, a wedding ceremony is transformed into a funeral. I think this is the line for one thread. Any novice could have rubbed two brain cells together and come up with catastrophic examples of collision and death to brand an insurance agency.

This lacks total creativity and is negative.

Verizon Wireless

A father and son are window shopping for phones. The son asks his dad when the phones will go on sale. His father retorts, ‘When pigs fly. ’ At this moment, a large pig waddles into the shot (walking) just as a Verizon salesperson puts a ‘red-hot’ sales sign in the window. I’ve watched this commercial several times and still can’t figure out what the concept is. For gosh sakes! – The pig is walking, and the phones are on sale. Am I missing something here?

This commercial is neither negative nor particularly positive, but it is ambiguous and confusing.

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Panicked office workers run for cover when one of the associates screams. “She’s got a knife. “She’s a knife-wielding worker responds, “she has a knife and a fork.” (Because she’s eating a KFC, she’s, of course). The brainchild of this concept uses killing, mayhem, and murder to sell their client’s product. The client’s commercial is especially insensitive to families who have lost loved ones in similar real-world circumstances, akin to the recent rampage at Virginia Tech.

This commercial is tasteless, insensitive, and highly harmful.

All of these companies and their advertising agencies have broken the cardinal rule in advertising. Never reinforce your branding with a negative idea or concept. An innovative ad agency accentuates the positive. Nike, Coca-Cola USA, and McDonald’s are good examples of companies running ad campaigns that strike a positive note.

From a psychological perspective, humans tend to bury and suppress bad or negative memories.

So why in the world would a business or company ever consider reinforcing their branding with a negative concept or idea?

It isn’t a good business.