Environmental advertising at a mall in Annapolis
I ought to love this ad, which I snapped at a mall in Annapolis last week while grabbing a bite after a client meeting. If follows the Water Words That Work method down to the last detail, and yet, it somehow doesn’t quite work. First the checklist:
- Step One: Begin with Behavior. Check. Keep trash out of the oceans.
- Step Two: Find Foolproof Photos. Check. Big faces everywhere.
- Step Three: Swap Shoptalk. Check. No shoptalk.
- Step Four: Insert Words That Work. Check. Clean.
I can’t quite put my finger on how to say this, but I’m not sure the people wandering through the food court had any idea how they could keep the oceans clean. I think they had no idea that any cigarette butts or other crap they dropped in the parking lot would reach the sea eventually. I think anybody in the food court who stopped to the ponder the ad might say “yeah, I’ll try to remember that next time I’m at the beach.”
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I have to admit, I think the use of the fantastical mermaids might be a “miss,” too. Unless their target audience is children, in which case, a more explicit directive is in order: “Don’t litter our beaches,” or something. Maybe if they’d gone with a photo of a real family on a picturesque beach, picking up litter or their dog’s waste or something else really obvious?
I see these around Norfolk, VA and wonder the same thing = love the ocean, love the mermaids, thanks for the visual while I was at the stop light…now what was I supposed to do to keep the oceans clean?
Maybe the disconnect is in the image and what we are trying to protect. I think when the ad says life in ocean depends on you, but the image says we need to protect Ariel and the Disney Clan, not animals and plants that live in the ocean. It is not a valid request. Disney cartoon characters do not need protecting, and if they did would we help them by keeping the ocean clean?
Must be doing a good job. Everyone in the add is smiling broadly and happy.
Maybe you’re being a little too kind about the request for action. “Keep it Clean” isn’t really a call to action. A specific request like don’t litter, avoid fertilizers or pick up after your dog would have been much stronger. I also think the cartoon characters don’t touch any kind of emotional nerve like real live human faces would.
I have to admit, I think the use of the fantastical mermaids might be a “miss,” too. Unless their target audience is children, in which case, a more explicit directive is in order: “Don’t litter our beaches,” or something. Maybe if they’d gone with a photo of a real family on a picturesque beach, picking up litter or their dog’s waste or something else really obvious?
I actually think the mermaids are a brilliant plan. Everyone can relate to this marketing of a perfect world/ ocean. I think the issue is that there is nothing “wrong”. And the call to action is worthless when nothing appears “wrong.” Now if you put trash in the mermaids hands or a cigarette in their mouths…I think you’d have a message.
Also your assessment, Erik, of Step 1, you say “Check: Keep trash out of the oceans”. The ad doesn’t say that anywhere. It doesn’t state clearly HOW to keep it clean. There’s an assumnption that ppl will know what “clean” means.
I think part of your issue with this might be the fact that the food court in Annapolis mall happens to be very close to the movie theater; it would be very easy to mistake that ad for a movie poster.
The audience must clearly be children, since they can most closely relate with The Little Mermaid. I think “Keep the oceans clean” might work, only because it’s simple, and yet broad enough. Kids get a lot of environmental education at an early age, and this ad could easily be reinforcement for what they’ve learned. They know to keep trash in cans, and not to pour antifreeze down the stormdrains. The ad is just a friendly reminder.