“Everyone” or No One?
There are two different ad campaigns running right now that make the same fundamental mistake: they claim that “everyone” is doing something that I strongly suspect no one is actually doing. Now, I have nothing against hyperbolic claims in advertising. They can be a lot of fun. (I love the Axe ads, for instance, which take the basic premise of all men’s deodorant/cologne ads and dial it up to 11.) But your hyperbole has to be based in a grain of truth, or you just look ridiculous. If you claim that “everyone” is doing something, then someone has to be doing it.
The first is the TV show “Good Day New York”. They made up an incredibly stupid-looking dance, “do the Good Day”, and they’re running TV and outdoor ads claiming that “everyone’s doing it”. I don’t believe it. I don’t believe that anyone’s doing this incredibly stupid-looking dance.
The second, and this is even more egregious because it’s a major advertiser that should know better, is McDonald’s. They’re running ads claiming that “everyone is talking about” their coffee. Come on. It’s possible that out in the heartland somewhere, conversations are routinely started with, “Hey, have you tried the delicious coffee they sell at McDonald’s?” But I really doubt it. McDonald’s isn’t the kind of brand people talk about like that; it’s too ubiquitous. People talk about brands that they’ve discovered, where they want to let their friends in on the secret. Nobody discovers McDonald’s.
If you run ads using claims that nobody’s going to believe, you’re just wasting your money.
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when I see ads like that, I assume they’re not even trying to be truthful — that they don’t intend to be taken literally, just to alert people to their product. The phrase “everybody’s doing it” or “everybody’s talking about it” is just a way to say, “our product is cool, everybody SHOULD be talking about it.” I don’t think it’s any less effective than other methods that say our product is cool without backing it up (which all sorts of ads do).
Of course it’s not meant to be taken literally, but people “gut check” ads against their own experience, so an ad needs to have a kernel of truth or people will just dismiss it. If they can’t imagine anyone talking about the product, then they’ll scoff and ignore the ad when they hear “everyone’s talking about it”. Likewise ads that say “our product is cool” when it really isn’t. I’m sure McDonald’s has something true they can say about their coffee, instead of going a direction that nobody will believe.
By “true” in the above comment, what I really mean is “credible”, of course–a statement in an ad can be literally true, but if nobody finds it credible then it still won’t be effective advertising. Part of why they pay us planners the big bucks.