"BOO!" Are scare tactics ever justified?

The ASA has received over 350 complaints about the Government's new climate change ad where a father reads a scary bedtime story to his daughter.

Read about it on the Guardian website and let me know what you think.

A similar approach was taken in recent anti-smoking ads in which children share their fears about their parent dying. See what the BCC says about the complaints.

It's a tad early, but Happy Halloween, everybody.

Bummer

I heard a coach ad on the radio yesterday, that started with various names for 'bum' and ended up inviting you to put yours on one of their many thousands of seats.

Getting bums on seats is the supplier point of view, while passengers want their bum (and the rest of their body) taken comfortably to the place they want to go.

Message to coach company (and everyone else): Rewrite your ad from the customer's point of view. Please!

Astounding after-sales care

Land's End has always had a good reputation for customer service. For example, they sell trousers that are hemmed to your own length.

In their latest catalogue, they have excelled themselves!

As part of their lifetime guarantee, they now offer a FREE repair service to replace buttons, mend seams and darts or fix loose belt loops.

It's a safe bet for them (their quality is very good). And a reassuring safeguard for us.

What can you do to take away the risk for your potential customers?

How observant are you?

As well as writing without waffle for websites, newsletters and leaflets, I train people how to do their own marketing.

In one exercise, I show them a page of coloured dots for 3 seconds, and ask them to count the blue ones. Then I ask how many red ones there are.

People generally get it wrong. Like all of us, they have 'edited out' anything that is not relevant. That's why we have to make sure our marketing hits the spot so precisely when we are targeting prospective clients.

TfL takes this technique several stages further in an ad I first saw at the cinema last night. What a brilliant way of getting their message across!

Test your awareness

Bog off, BOGOF!

Tesco is replacing Buy One Get One Free with Buy One Get One Free, Later.

What an inspired piece of marketing!

Not only does it make them appear environmentally friendly by helping to reduce waste, but it also tempts people back to the shop a second time to claim their freebies (and buy more).

It's the best idea I've seen in ages.

Today's test: How can you adapt it to increase sales of your own product/service?

As reported in the Telegraph.

"Love Mondays"

What a great slogan I heard on the radio last week for a recruitment agency. That's just it. They don't sell jobs. They sell happy Mondays.

What do you sell?

I want one of those!

A remote control wand as seen in the newspapers this weekend.

"Nothing makes me feel better...

...than that freshly dressed feeling I get at the start of the day."

Whaaaaat?

It's the opening line for a Lenor ad, but even a little imagination tells you it's nonsense.

What makes you feel better?

I should cocoa

I saw the purple 'glass-and-a-half-full productions' logo, and was looking forward to the new Cadbury's ad.

It's a giant singing head, inspired by Ghanaian culture, intended to show their move to Fairtrade cocoa for Dairy Milk bars.



The ad is very worthy, but a bit of a let-down (unlike chocolate). Then again, a drumming gorilla IS a tough act to follow!

P.S. 'Zingolo', the backing track, is being sold as a single, with profits going towards education in cocoa-producing areas of Ghana.

Since when

did the word 'fun' become an adjective?

Coincidence!

I choreographed a routine for one of my dance classes, to the tune of 'Unbelievable' by EMF.

"I haven't heard that in ages!" said the teacher.

Next time I turned on the TV, there it was again, in an ad for Coco Rocks.

Now I can't get the song out of my head!

Luckily, as a bit of a rock chick, I like it.

Soundbites

It's great to have an eloquent spokesperson.

Sensodyne Iso-Active have managed to find someone* who says, quite naturally: "Frothy foaminess ... it ties it all up with a bow ... you just want to do that running-your-tongue-over-your-teeth when you've finished."

A cheesy grin to them.

* Kate from Islington

Taking things personally

I saw an Ocado van the other day, that said: "I'm a veggie van. I drink bio-diesel."

I saw an ad in Holland & Barrett, as if the vitamins were speaking.

And a 'talking' squirrel states: "I'm nuts about recycling" on a reusable carrier bag in Sainsbury's.

It seems anthropomorphism is a trend that doesn't just apply to meerkats.