There are two things in my environment that I am done with, completely over.
The first is flash mobs. (Or anything involving flash and/or mobs). Now, I used to be a fan. That cell phone commercial at the train station was awesome, and so was the Black Eyed Peas on Oprah. Other than that, it's all old news and unexciting. Anyone wishing to start a flash mob now is sooo 2008 (and also 2000-and-late).
Side note - do you remember what cell phone company the ad was for? Me neither. FAIL!
Second thing - "teaser" ad campaigns, especially Edmonton-centric ones.
You know what I'm talking about. We were blessed in March with not one, but TWO such campaigns. The first was for Southgate mall, and it was their second offence. At least their teaser had glittery, mesmerizing, trance-inducing signs.
The second one, and also a second offense was for Now! Radio. Avid followers (again, read: nobody) will know my feelings about this station. You will also know my feelings about their last campaign. This time around was a whole series of inane and highly creepy billboards that read like Three Lines Free (for those who are old like me) or craigslist ads (for those who grew up with the series of tubes), asking where "Red Scarf Girl" was, and if creepy billboard man (Prince Charming? more like Prince Rapist) could find her again.
After a looooong protracted campaign, it was revealed that Now! radio was behind it all. And we all laughed and laughed. Then we gave them kudos for being so interesting. Then we puked.
I am not an advertising person - so I don't get how this can be effective. I can't imagine that it's true that all publicity is good publicity. (for example, if McDonald's is in the news for serving mice instead of cows, will that drive sales?) The only thing these ads did was solidify my dislike for the Now! radio brand. In my mind, the big reveal was absolutely disappointing. It should have ended with Red Scarf Girl and Prince Charming really being Belinda Stronach and Peter MacKay getting back together in a Scientologist wedding, or something similarly spectacular.
And this bait-and-switch was brought to you by the station that bills itself as "Honest" and "Open" and "Not Fake" (and p.s., don't get me started on what that means for a radio station).
My favourite part of this whole saga is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION of this anymore on the Now! website. This is brilliant advertising.
I can only hope that the next campaign they run involves flash mobbing in some form or another.
