I find it crazy to think about all of the messages we don’t even pay attention too that are presented to us every single day. We have become so numb to everything that surrounds us we have to seek out the information we want and need to see. This goes especially for advertisements. Last semester in the Newhouse Advertising 208 class, the big idea in advertising, my professor referred to the ads we miss as wallpaper advertising. Just because it is all around us doesn’t mean that it may stand out enough for us to pay attention to it. This creates a challenge for advertisers to create content that we actually want to see.

For me ads that feature comedy tend to real me in. I especially like it when the advertiser goes above and beyond with word play. Those kinds of ads that make you go “wait, what did I just hear”? Specifically one ad campaign that came to mind is a K-mart ad campaign that came out a few years ago. K-mart was trying to advertise that people could order anything from their store and have it shipped right to their doorstep for free. K-mart enlisted the help of ad agency Draftfcb Chicago to come up with an engaging way for people to listen to the ads. What they came up with made many people do a double take by specifically advertising the shipment of pants.

K-marts ads entitled “I shipped my pants” https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=I03UmJbK0lA

The ad also features fake testimonials of people saying they shipped their drawers, their bed, and their nighty. The context of the ad makes you take a double take. And more than likely will have you crying with laughter when you realize what they’re really saying. K-mart continued this campaign by following it up advertising Gas Savings at some of their store pumps.

K-marts second ad entitled “ Big Gas Savings”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1yir-p68xM

With these ads K-mart and Draftfcb Chicago had the right idea. Even though these advertisements aren’t exactly TV friendly (Even though the first place I saw the “shipped my pants” ad was on television. They knew that people would get a kick out of the word play and share it on social media. Which is exactly where I would up finding the “big gas savings” advertisement.

The problem for me with this blog assignment is that because I am advertising major I am usually voluntarily looking for advertisements to see what the industry is producing. Its not that I am waiting for an ad to grab my interests, I am actively looking for ads that will entertain me. There is one advertising agency in particular that I keep up with on a regular basis. They are also the only advertising agency that I follow (and pay attention to) on both Instagram and twitter, Wieden + Kennedy.

This agency’s ads don’t only produce content that I usually find as interesting or humorous, I also really agree with many of their business models. I always try to keep their motto “Fail Harder” in mind when approaching creative assignments and projects of my own. This slogan being from a mural they have in their office of 100,000 clear pushpins that spell out the words “Fail Harder” in script font. The slogan is one step further from “try-try again”. It means try-try again and learn from all these mistakes as you move forward. And don’t just learn from them be proud of them.

Going off of that, I found this W+K ad back when all I used to do was watch YouTube videos instead of doing homework. The ad is titled “the man your man could smell like.” The ad went viral almost instantly for its humor, but also because the video was trying to sell men’s body wash by targeting their significant others who usually purchase their toiletries for them.

Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

This is another example of an ad that had me do a double take. The message is clear. Buy old spice body wash for your man so that way this man does as he flashes fancy things in front of you. Ending the ad of course on a horse. I fell in love with this ad and the entire campaign that followed behind it. They took a unique spin and helped out a brand that was starting to be described as “for old guys.”

The campaign eventually grew to the point where the W+K creative team thought it would be a good idea to make it interactive over twitter. They had fans of the man your man could smell like from all over the world ask questions about the brand via twitter so that way they were able to respond with short live videos in real time. Here are just a few of these responses.

@Jsbeals Question Response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-fLV28SkZ8&index=5&list=PL484F058C3EAF7FA6

@TheEllenShow Question Response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cs95FmimP0&index=4&list=PL484F058C3EAF7FA6

These ads took the old spice guy one step further. This is what gets my attention. Generally, the weird things are what I love. The things that require a double take to fully understand what’s going on. It’s these ads that I feel went above and beyond to try to grab the attention of audiences that have brands shouting at them from every single direction. This is also why I decided to pursue my degree in advertising. Because this challenge of creating something that people want to pay attention to is exciting for me. I’ve decided to end this blog post with an excerpt from one of my favorite songs, “Twin Sized Mattress” by the band The Front Bottoms. “I want to contribute to the chaos. I don’t want to watch and then complain. Because I am through, finding blame, that is the decision that I have made”.