Don’t let puns become another victim of the Woolworths Anzac debacle
While Woolworths has received much-deserved opprobrium for its ‘Fresh in our memories’ Anzac Day campaign Chris Taylor fears puns could become the underserved victim of the backlash for advertisers.
Ah, puns. The copywriter’s equivalent of the dad joke. Harmless, chuckle-worthy, eye-rollingly good plays on words that make us expel air out of our noses at a rate faster than normal for at least one breath.
I will admit I love a good pun and even kind of like a ‘bad’ pun. Good on them for having a go, I’ll think to myself. See, when you’re coming up with headlines for things, you try to find ways to highlight the stuff you’ve been told to highlight. You need to make a connection between the product and the potential consumer. Why not draw on common ground with a few well-placed words that have a smile-inducing double meaning?
But I’m not in the majority here. Some people hate puns, or deride them as ‘cheap’ and ‘easy’. They say ‘there’s no such thing as a good pun’ and spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to create a gem before reverting to a tried and true “more than just a…”, “we’re for…” or new favourite “welcome to…”.
As such, advertisers of a certain chip colour have been reticent to deploy puns in their mass-market communications. This week, a few would argue we’ve all been witness to front row seats as to why.
Woolworths ‘Fresh in our memories’ campaign drew a strong reaction, and deservedly so. The internet responded as the internet does and amongst the swathes of digital disbelief and virtual hand-wringing someone somewhere pointed out that one of the worst things about this misguided use of the word ‘fresh’ was that is was a pun.
Great, I thought. Another thousand lashes for the fly-ridden dead horse of pun hate. But as a staunch defender of the play-on-word, I feel a need to intervene.
‘Fresh in our memories’ was not a pun. I appreciate that this makes as much sense as saying water is not a liquid, but lets look at the actual facts.
Yes, it has a double meaning, but only because of the association the Woolworths brand has with the word ‘fresh’. If it was a true pun, the fresh would refer to the people in our memories being either crisp like a spritzed iceberg lettuce or somehow dressed like the Prince of Bel Air.
It’s also neither smile-inducing nor giggle-worthy in any way. And the only air that would be expelled from one’s nostrils upon reading it for the first time would be from indignant anger, not some beige variety of pleasure.
Not a true play on words. Not funny. No nostril air.
Three strikes you’re out = Not a pun.
The internet will move on by the end of the week. But brands will be more cautious as a result. Knuckles will be rapped and contracts will be reviewed. And standing in the line-up with the guilty parties will be the pun. A case of mistaken identity in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfairly judged for a crime it did not commit and I for one feel sorry for them.
So now it’s not so much that every pun is a bad pun, they’re all just poor puns.
Sorry. I couldn’t help it.
- Chris Taylor is creative director of Shabbadu
Well said Chris. Power to the pun.
“Worth Remembering” – that IS a pun, and it would have had equal if not more backlash had it been used.
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Wade into the Anzac/ Woolies debate you risk being shot out of the water.
Meaning one. Fresh – as in the fresh fruit and vegetables – which Woolies (and Coles) sell in their huge fruit and vegetable departments.
Meaning two. Fresh – still alive in your memory.
Association. Fresh – a word famously used in Woolies advertising.
It’s well and truly a pun.
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By definition a pun has to be a joke or at least attempting to be funny. The intention of ‘Fresh in our memories’ wasn’t to be funny. Hence, not a pun. Unwell and untruly.
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This is getting stale…
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It’s a pun.
Definition is wordplay on a word, with 2 meanings.
“Fresh” was used to play on the 2 meanings “recent” (Anzac) and “tasty” (Woolies).
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Rushdie is correct. A pun doesn’t have to be funny, though it is usually.
Collins definition: The use of words or phrases to exploit ambiguities and innuendoes in their meaning, usually for humorous effect
The Woolworth’s campaign was not funny, but any un-braindead observer could see the pun.
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hmmm, some puns are good some bad IMHO – the best make an exquisite point and are most often witty – and Professor Dick Champion of Sydney Uni used to say the sign of a good pun is when people groan… (when others said a pun is the lowest from of wit he replied that a bun was the lowest form of wheat)…
I think the deeper issue here is that Woollies simply fell into the trap known as Trivialising the Brand – in this case two brands with one stone… (Ad Grunt, Groucho, your thoughts?)… and they did it by cheap association. The inherent disservice to the Anzacs pivots around the fact that there were no fresh rations in the trenches. So no empathy straight up.
The disconnect for the consumers is the “our” – it’s wrong and makes it seem Wooliies-centric. In that respect it’s arse-about: far more potent to say ‘keep the memory of our heroes alive’ ergo ‘keep their memory fresh (in your mind)’
The disgust people felt emanates from the misappropriation of a sacred time for an ELP strategy – supermarkets have no place monopolising heritage even when disguised as an homage… and they are simply missing the whole point dynamic CX
Best we forget.
IMHO
next we’ll have Best & Less we forget
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While Woolworths has received much-deserved opprobrium for it’s ‘Fresh in our memories’:
This should reads its rather than it’s.
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And it’s Woolworths’ rather than Woolworth’s.
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So – I don’t agree with the Woolies use of the ANZACs in their advertising.
However, on the TV the other night their was an ‘advert’ for a CD Spirit of the ANZACs with ‘music to remember the ANZACs to’ from the ABC
where do we draw the line??
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There’s nothing that has been posted so far to change my opinion. The Collins Dictionary isn’t the be all and end all. Subtle digs at my braindeadedness won’t help your argument.
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