Whenever someone in advertising says something like "everyone hates _______" or otherwise implies this industry has ironclad rules to follow, I immediately shake my head.
Here's the problem with trying to stick with "rules" in advertising: Advertising is generally quite mediocre. So if you follow the rules, you're basically just signing a social contract in which you agree to make lukewarm turd chowder for a living.
Case in point: "No one likes unskippable ads." Generally true, but why? See the aforementioned turd chowder. If advertising were more frequently compelling and fun, the skippability of an ad wouldn't even be noticed, would it?
The same folks used to say something similar: "No one likes preroll ads."
But time and creativity, most notably with Geico's masterpiece Unskippable campaign in 2015, have proven that preroll ads can often be shockingly intriguing—and best of all, effective. Geico and Martin Agency literally won the Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix with a preroll ad, which should have proven that anything is up for grabs if you're creative enough.
Which is all a roundabout way of saying why I'm such a fan of the new McDonald's ad from Leo Burnett Moscow. It's an unskippable 20-second ad, which, sure, might normally be annoying. But once you get the idea of why the ad can't be skipped, you really have to hand it to the creative team.
Not to veer off on a tangent, but this is also illustrative of why I personally don't get on board with the movement to ban coronavirus-related campaigns from winning at ad award shows.
I get the argument that agencies might create campaigns with the intent of winning trophies rather than helping fight the pandemic, but I worry this would mean we also wouldn't take the time to recognize the creative solutions that have come out of this strange and unprecedented era.
Advertising only improves when we push the edges of the rules, so this feels like an odd time to start making new ones rather than celebrating problem-solving that finds effectiveness at the margins of how we think things are "supposed to work."
What do you think? Drop me a note at the email below or at @Griner on Twitter.
David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com
