Of brave marketing, the prime minister, the pig and me
You know how we spend a lot of time talking about brave marketing?
Last week, for once somebody actually did some.
It did not go well.
I’m referring to the slightly unedifying tale of Studio’s ‘bestiality ad’ and Foxtel’s rapid retreat.
Freedom of the press? Not sure where the line should be drawn here. But even if the PM was getting it on with a pig, whose right is it to be including this in their campaign for any reason anyway. It’s personal, it’s private. Marketing is one thing but responsibility is another. I think the latter takes precedence….
Brave? Sure, beastiality on a billboard would take some cojones, but lets not go overboard with this, no one is laying down their lives or even their career for this.
Imaginative? Don’t think so, the beastiality angle would be the obvious choice yes? Even if you went with this angle simply showing the act is hardly a stretch of the imagination.
To me the image implies beastiality and nothing else, not really something I would be inclined to tune in for.
Perhaps another strategy would have piqued consumer interests?
On the other hand the bottom line is getting consumer attention to the story and they surely did get more attention from this then simply running a less controversial image, hell I know i wouldn’t have the faintest about this series if not for a pig and a pants down bloke.
Good article Tim, but I wouldn’t call the ad a piece of brave advertising – it was designed to grab maximum attention. That’s not brave – that’s controversial for the sake of being controversial. What’s worse is that the premise of Black Mirror is very provocative in these tech-addicted times so there were plenty of other ways the program could have been promoted to focus the publics attention on the program – though I accept this may of taken longer to achieve than a photo of a man having sex with a pig.
That said, your point about brands never wanting to offend – and climbing down the moment someone speaks out against them – is the bigger issue, not just for adland, but business as a whole.
I agree with Tim – this was excellent marketing. I hadn’t heard of the program before this incident; having been informed of the show I downloaded it on the weekend to watch it. It’s an inspired piece of short-form film-making, and its explicitness is on par with a median episode of Game of Thrones.
I am one who is for brave and out of the box advertising and have been critical of typical conservative Australian advertising in the past.
That being said, I’m not offended by the Foxtel ad, it’s daring, but not hugely risky. They went for shock value. They didn’t embrace an out of the box creative idea that was truly creative.
Upsetting the Christian Lobby is always a sure fire way to grab a headline, but surely they could have been a little more creative rather than being simply crass.
It is because of incidents like this that cause marketers to become more cautious, they confuse the back-lash of bad judgement with taking a risk on a big creative idea, thus campaigns like this in turn cause more damage to creativity in Australia.
*** The picture does not show anyone having sex with a pig ***
*** This is not an explicit image ***
*** This is not an image of bestiality ***
How hard is this to grasp?
To consider this image to be of bestiality, one has to:
– know what sex is
– know what bestiality is
– consider that an image of a partially clothed man and a pig must inevitably lead to bestiality
Judging by the pearl-clutching comments from Shelly et al, the mind of a Christian is muckier than a sty. Albeit chronically repressed.
Freudenstein has done media a great disservice today. But then he is a Newscorp sheep, so what could one expect.
Charlie Brooker at The Guardian, who made the show, must be ecstatic.
I’d question the assertion that the Billboard was either brave or clever. The show is brave, the advertising is pretty basic first thought stuff. You could have done so much more with a show like this. The reaction was also pretty standard too and I would suggest is, in itself, the actual marketing coup here.
The shot chosen for the billboard is a total spoiler!
Black Mirror is one of the best, most insightful Television productions of the past 10 years. To give away the ending of the debut episode for shock value doesn’t seem brave to me.
its a man fucking a pig on a public thoroughfare – it is to brave what a vasectomy is to fun
Brave.
Adjective
Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage.
I don’t think it was Brave, no courage shown here, shock and awe is age-old. Personally, most of the time I think it is overused and in this case didn’t demonstrate a creative execution.
Lazy execution.
If you think this is brave – you may also believe that pigs might fly…
This is a billboard. And not the campaign.
If the campaign was to have live people sexing pigs all over the city, then yes, it would be a completely inappropriate and crass.
If anything should be taken down, it should be the show itself and not the billboard. After all, it’s only the messenger.
This is a billboard. And not the campaign.
If the campaign was to have live people sexing pigs all over the city, then yes, it would be a completely inappropriate and crass.
If anything should be taken down, it should be the show itself and not the billboard. After all, it’s only the messenger.
I would suggest the billboard achieved exactly what it was commissioned to do, create discussion and achieve exposure.
There’s a difference between brave marketing and pointless shock tactics.
I watched this drama last night and found it to be a mature critique of the consequences and extent of our voyeuristic society. However, using this image and the line ‘Watch the forbidden’ to promote it is a desperate cry for controversy that sells it as nothing more than plain old pornography.
It’s not creative at all, it does a disservice to the product and more importantly the industry. Thanks to these ‘brave’ cowboys, there’s now more momentum to end our self-regulation.
@Patrick, glad to see this was ‘excellent marketing’. I think the point of billboard was to get you to watch it on Studio, not download it.
Patrick, not sure about Excellent Marketing if you downloaded it, pretty sure the Excellent Marketers wanted you to watch it on Studio….
Agree with Jeremy, they went for the cheap, crass option to get a bit of controversy going. Nothing exciting there. Which is a shame because it sounds like a good show.
of course working in advertising and marketing its hard not to be a tad cynical when things like this happen. Not that it needed it, the black mirror series is fantastic in its own right!
Brave? How pompous and self-important.
Phoney generated controversy and lazy yes!
The picture does not entice any viewer who would be attracted to the sinister dark wit of the show. Campaign Fail