by Saeed Khan
I’ve been traveling a fair bit lately and often read the billboard ads in the airports. Every so often, an ad stands out, and not because of it’s merits unfortunately.
Here are two ads I saw on recent trips. Have you seen similar or worse? If so send it our way. Upload the image via the Contact Us form.
When you have nothing distinctive to say…
This image was taken at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. What caught my eye was “300 Best”, which is probably what the ad creators intended. But then when I read it, I let out a laugh.
Click on the image to enlarge, but the ad (for Northern Arizona University) says:
“Our business school’s Accelerated MBA program is ranked among the 300 best”
And they cite the Princeton Review rankings as their source.
Now, I’m no fancy marketer with a fancy marketing degree from a fancy MBA school (like Northern Arizona University), but being amongst the 300 best MBA programs in the United States doesn’t sound that amazing. Are there even 300 MBA programs in the US?
A quick bit of web research and we have our answer.
a) The Princeton Review site itself, lists only the top 295 Business Schools
.
So being in the top 300 in a ranking of 295 schools is a pretty amazing feat.
b) In all of the United States (according to Wikipedia), there are only 299 AACSB Accredited business schools.
Yes, I counted them :-), and yes, Northern Arizona University’s MBA program is accredited.
But what I honestly don’t understand is how such a ridiculous ad was approved and money spent on it. It doesn’t highlight ANYTHING about the school or the program, and simply makes a sad attempt at value by association. i.e. we must be good because the Princeton Review included us in the list.
Have you seen anything similar to this in product advertising?
Nice idea, but very flawed execution
This second image was taken at Pearson Airport here in Toronto (my hometown).
Take a look at the ad and see if you see the flaw. Click the image to enlarge.
Because of the flaw, I actually had to read it a couple of times to understand what they were trying to say. The ad copy reads:
After studying the critical elements of Dow’s business, guess what we’re helping them save?
Let me guess?
a) Bisexual Lions
b) Money on proof-readers
c) the letter “L”
I actually had to read this 2 or 3 times until my brain realized it was saying “Billions” — i.e there is huge spelling mistake front and center. How did the folks at Accenture, Dow and the advertising agency not catch this, or worse, think it was acceptable?
The spelling error (intentional or not) completely distracts from the message. There’s creativity and cleverness and then there’s dumb. In this case, I’m pretty sure somebody pointed out the spelling issue and as overruled. There’s no element in the periodic table whose symbol is just the letter L, and I’m sure the ad company felt the concept was “too good” to have to deal with realities like spelling.
As mentioned above, if you’ve seen some bad advertising lately, take a picture and send it to us via the Contact Us form, and maybe we’ll blog about it.
Tweet this: How not to advertise your company http://wp.me/pXBON-3Xv #prodmgmt #marketing #advertising
Saeed
About the author
Saeed Khan is a founder and Managing Editor of On Product Management, and has worked for the last 20 years in high-technology companies building and managing market leading products. He also speaks regularly at events on the topic of product management and product leadership.