Celebrity advertising stinks
Following on from my earlier entry on celebrity endorsements for advertising I’d like to focuss on one particular product area: fragrances.
I can’t help but notice that TV ad time is swamped with star-studded endorsements for – The Fragrance (the last resort Xmas present). Ad-slots have heated up despite the snow with James Franco, Vincent Cassell, Josh Harnett, Ewan McGregor, Kiera Knightly, Nichol Kidman, Kate Moss, Beyonce all doing their utmost to convince us to buy the scent they represent.
Actually they are not doing their utmost, in fact they are doing very little but it’s better than just featuring the actual companies behind the product. Yet, is this really the best way to convince the public to buy their fragrance above all others? Especially when (conceptually) they are all the same.
I don’t blame the creatives or the agencies behind the ads; anyone in the ad biz knows the best ideas never get chosen 
but let’s face it, there’s not even the slightest attempt to stand out.
I get it though. Buy the smell and you’re buying into the glamor of the worlds inhabited by these celebs. Hell, it’s worked in the past and the wisdom here seems to say that if it aint broke… I just thought that maybe the consumer these days was slightly more knowledgeable and cynical about advertising to fall for that old one.
You would think though, that if this is the time of year when sales peak then surely the arena is more competitive.
So why be the same as your rivals?
There is a great opportunity to stand out and be memorable but I smell a rat. Playing safe seems to be the order of the day and in these times of accountability a good defense for decision makers is “well they do it, so why don’t we?”. Safety in numbers and all that.
Maybe that’s the point. Maybe they all smell the same, and so the ads are all the same. It could be an honest approach to advertising.
And that, my friends, stinks.
