Bucketful of Wrong

In doing other, other job, you know…as VP of Marketing at a scrappy, little start-up called Inquisix… I came across a delightful example of just plain WRONG advertising from yesteryear…

Look at it. Read the copy. (I’ll wait.)

One. Easy. Piece.

Oy vey.

That is a whole bucketful of wrong. I can hardly restrain myself from doing a little forensic marketing for this delightful little poly-cotton blend schmatta (drip dry!)  So folks I ask this… what the HELL was going on in the 70′s to make THIS OK?

This is what happens to Mad Men, a couple of decades later. working off a groovy three Piña Colada fondue lunch.

It also points out how far we’ve come baby. BTW, that’s another fave 70′s ad campaign– Virginia Slim’s “You’ve Come Along Way Baby,” where it applauded women’s evolution from housewifery to emphysema and lung cancer (Hooray!)

But in this day and age it would not work now would it?

For one we’ve evolved socially (and can I hear a “Hallelujah!?!”)  Now, we are all about the subtle in marketing, being “authentic” and engaging in conversations with customers, both potential and existing. This ad is as subtle as the scuzzy loser at a bar who hits on anything that moves. Surely making an “Impression,” but not a quality impression– not  a smart marketing move today, especially in a brutal marketplace with shrinking ad budgets and customers that are more elusive than ever to reach.

Also a misstep like this would be heckled, dissected and properly thrashed via the Internet, blogs, YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter. As it rightly should. Brutal, but take a look at it. Daaaaaammn.

There is the added caveat that the One Easy Piece, as a parody, a hysterical contrast to the real ad image/copy, would totally rock.

One Response to “Bucketful of Wrong”

1. So WRONG it’s Right: The Bucketful of Wrong Done Right - The Liquid Betsy says:

   August 17, 2009 at 10:06 AM

   [...] I feel like I’m still recovering from it– I don’t know about you, but that image will be seared forever in my brain. Or, at least,  for the next few [...]