Why does it seem to be limited to politics ? In product marketing, it rarely comes up - even then, generally in the form of “we’re cheaper/tastier/better than the un-named other product” - with the only common exceptions I can think of being credit cards & automotive ads. (You don’t see “Budweiser tastes like runoff, drink Brand X !”, or whatever.)
And that said, if product marketers avoid it, why do political ads differ and buck the trend ?
Politics is very personal. It’s me against you. Sometimes emotion (or ego) will get out of control. The things you say against your opponent over the back fence ends up in your political advertising.
Personal digs and negative campaigns that you see waged by a lot of politicians would never pass a conservative board at, say, Proctor and Gamble or General Motors.
There is a small group of people who make a bit of money off of advertising like this. They call themselves “political advisors.” I’ve often wondered what kind of fees they must charge for this service, since I only see them every two years or so during election time. And they all seem to drive better cars than mine.
In Rochester the local cable company started running a lot of negative ads about how much small dish satellite TV sucks (having a satellite system at home, I heartily disagree, but that’s another matter.) It made me pretty happy. It means there’s some semblence of competition in a usually monopolistic market.
A couple of months ago, when the phone companies made a big push for aDSL in my area (N. California), Pac-Bell ran a series of rather humorous advertisements against cable modems.
The ads depicted a very disfunctional neighborhood in which everyone was upset over having to share the bandwidth from one cable. Although the ads ended with Pacific Bell’s logo and a small statement about them, that was a minor part. Mostly the ads were bashing cable modems.
well there is a guy in australia (Dick Smith, heard of him?) who tells the truth about everything. And ppl (consumers) dont like it.
He says, this box of Co-co pops, contains more sugar than this chocolate cake.
Well he is right, the adds were still running.
And coco pops were pissed about it.
Political ads do not have to be true - they are protected by the 1st amendment and no liable or slander laws apply. But if you say that Coke is better then Pepsi then you have to be able to prove it when Pepsi comes a-knockin’.
Libel and slander laws do vaguely apply to political advertising, but the proof required (“actual malice”, as per N.Y. Times v. Sullivan) is so incredibly high that it would be extremely hard to make the charge stick.
Strangely enough, classical defamation law does not apply to most advertising because only a natural person has the right to bring a suit; corporations do not. However, many states have a statutory extension allowing corporations to bring lawsuits against speech defamatory of the company or its products. Anyone remember the Oprah “beef libel” case?
Also, for many years trademark law was interpreted such that using the name or distinctive symbol of a competitor in an advertisement was a violation and so nobody ever did it. This was changed some years ago, but old habits sometimes die hard.
We also used to get a lot of ads from TCI bashing small-dish satellite and pushing digital cable.
Also, politics are often very similar between parties, despite the rhetoric. It’s sometimes easier to rubbish your opponent for their mistakes than it is to point out why you’re better or your policies are somehow distinctive. Manifesto promises often disappear once the realities of being in power strike home.
Maybe they’re afraid that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. If people are very loyal to your competitor’s brand and you slam it in a commercial, any negative statements you make are unlikely to impress them. In the end, maybe the opponent’s name will simply stick in their minds, and you’ve just handed the opposition some free advertising.
There’s an old truism in advertising called “Don’t give the competition a free plug.” Advertising executives love to distribute hundreds of research reports that say when they run a head-to-head comparison ad about two products, half the audience will remember the competitor.
Duracell batteries against Energizer. Burger King’s french fries went head to head with McDonalds. Can you remember which brands the “independent tests” said were better?Hell, there’s a whole generation of people who loved “Mean Joe Greene commercial for Pepsi.”
There’s also the “third competitor” factor. If Burger King and McDonalds start attacking each other, it’s only a matter of days before Wendy’s starts running commercials saying they’re better than either of the others.
On the other hand, if you’re new in the market, or so far behind the leader that you have nothing to lose, it’s sometimes worth a shot.
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Yeah. He also sells electronics parts and kits, like Radio Shack used to. I had one of his catalogs. Pretty funny stuff.
One item I remember was a kit to construct a hand-held meter that measured leaking radiation from microwave ovens. But instead of a numerical readout or a needle on a scale, there were just some green, yellow and red LEDs labeled "Safe, Sell it, and RUN!!! "
Or something like that.
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