The commercial GlobalHue didn't make (who did it better?) ::UPDATE::
I'm noting some massive subtleties here. Is this an ad GlobalHue couldn't do? Is this ad immensely better than what GH has done so far? The ad GH did certainly didn't warrant the death threats they received from the advertising community. Within the advertising community was there a huge backlash to a "multicultural" agency taking on a "general market" brand? I'd really love to hear from the advertising community & people who watch the ads, you can comment anonymously if you're scuured. Now the tag; I live, I ride, I am Jeep, felt a bit like a brand statement to be bantered around the office and maybe not the finished product. But that's more or less something an ad insider would think about. From the folks I know and have known with a Jeep, it was quite fitting. I've even worked on a Ford account where the ACD drove a Jeep in utter defiance of what we advertised everyday. But back to the ad. Is this new W+K ad earth shattering and a new life in advertising and subsequently in the life of the mind space that is a brand?
The massively teeny but meaningful differences I see are the tone of language to the mindset of the target. GH spoke to the markets brain, W+K's spot speaks to the loin. GH dug up the earthy hipster, that persona isn't supposed to exist in the Jeep family, but he's there, oddly. Maybe it's even there in hiding because he's a poser. That truth is almost biting, honest, but biting. W+K donned and old miners cap (replete with that little dim light peering forward) and a pick axe and dug deep into the general markets ass. They struck fools gold and it's the start of a new bonafide gold rush. Let me qualify that. W+K hit on who General Market Americans believe they are and that's all that really matters. They brought back the gritty romance, the steely fortitude.
While GH went the real world route and adeptly defined monotony and the minutia we live to escape from everyday. They also slickly whispered the glorious alternative that the Jeep brand offers. This is a huge move ahead in multicultural marketing. It's rare we see a multi-culti spot that would dare not show the product and rattle off every available feature and benefit that would fit into 30 seconds.
While GH gave us black turtle-neck W+K gave us a bit of red-neck. If you put the Tea Party logo @ around 40 seconds into this spot after all the talk of 'things that make us Americans', nation building, pride, rifles & cotton gins, you got yourself one of the best political ads since 'Morning in America.' Who are they talking to; Americans or people who speak Amurikin?
Although both of these adverts are practically clones by execution; the voice over, vocal cadence, stock imagery and the product, they drastically diverge at the part of the ego they address. Was one clearly better? Who did it best?
:: UPDATE :: Now I'm told that the imagery for the W+K spot comes from (was inspired by/gleaned from) a history channel promo. See it HERE.
MTLB says check out GSD&M's I Am Ram
https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png
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27 comments:
very Amerikun!
One anonymous commenter says:
I think the ad executionally is the same. Rip type shit. But W+K falls flat in their execution. GH is hitting the real place that Jeep is at right now. That historical stuff alienated the current consumer.
BTW- I worked on this when it was in review at BBDO. Long nights and weekends. I think what we did was better that what is running...Truthfully.
Another anonymous commenter says,
No, because they are two different strategies. While the brand voice is the same, the idea isn't. W&K went after as you say the visceral American Pride that is so current/social context appropriate right now. Tea Party or not, we americans need to get our act together. If it was the 8o's, like a Rock" would be playing and there would be a big "Buy American" logo. Overall, it is a much bigger idea than the GH work. This is a brand anthem that will never grow old. Comparatively, the GH work is smaller thinking. It is primarily driven by the individual against the crowd thought. It is very niche. Niche will not save the brand. I could go on but suffice it to say, I have a bigger issue to pick with this. In the W&K work, all the people who built this country and make things and make America work are sadly it SEEMS white males. This is the underbelly of the beast that hurts me. Hmmmmm.
They are both the same in my opinion. Sure, the voice over had different messaging, but W+K spot was a complete rip off of GH. Neither of the spots really move me. Maybe because I am not the brand, or I just don't give a hoot about vehicle. But lets keep it 100%, advertising is not truly about doing good work, it's about the almighty green back. Chrysler probably did not want to continue giving a multi-cultural agency money they would normally pay a general market agency. Now I am not pulling the race card here, but it's a known fact that multi-cultural agencies don't come close to what the general market agencies do in billing.
Now, with that said, it is very easy to blame it on the creative. In this case, you can possibly point your fingers directly to the top of the multi-cultural pyramid as to why GH lost the creative work. Maybe CEO's and wanna be creative hybrid Chief Creative Officers should just let the creatives do what they are paid for and not pitch stale ideas.
http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/globalhue/did_global_hues_top_brass_lose_the_2011_jeep_grand_cherokee_work_161498.asp
That's my POV.
A.d.
yet another fielded commenter says,
All I see is Sarah Palin saying Joe Plumber and Bush saying " The terrorists hate our freedom" haha.
and the anon train keeps bustlin':
Oh, my friend the slights are obvious? Who actually drove the spikes? Who worked in the factories? Who dug the ditches? Who cooked the meals? Who turned the soil? Who sewed the clothes? Who drove the wagons? Who built the bricks? Who climbed the steel to make the skyscrapers? History is a full of a lot of people who don't all look like the people I saw.
I think they are equally effective depending on who the target is or was. One seems to target the struggles of a white collar worker and the other seems to target the struggles of today's out of work blue collar workers and struggling small business owners. The white collar worker still wants to break free from his cubicle and live a bigger life. The blue collar (tea partyer) type of today wants to enjoy what America "was" when manufacturing abounded.
What I am not sure of is what Jeep wanted. Who did they want to target? Were they or are they sure of where they are going? This many times dictates where an agency can go.
I think both did a good job of capturing what Jeep probably say they wanted at the time in the "fly by night' type way clients say they want things. Of course, I am just guessing here of how the meetings went...
Dig this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk1nrgm55gQ
I'll admit, I never loved (or really liked, or even had a secret crush on) the GH ads. I felt it failed in terms of execution and timing. The copy felt rushed as if it were the first or second draft. I didn't feel that GH was incapable of mastering it. I merely assumed that GH probably fell victim to what many AA agencies fall victim to: the strangle hold of insufficient timing, lack of funds and a counterproductive lack of faith from the client. However, the IDEA behind what they were doing was brilliant. The line "watch the clock, and occasionally, my back" was also brilliant. I even love the end animation. But I also cringe every time I hear the word "Jeep" open the voiceover, every utterance of the word "greedily" and even just the VO's voice. The tag line, "I live. I ride..." felt a bit played to me as well.
W+K will probably be hailed as the savior to this campaign which is unfortunate because I feel they merely came in and did a quick remix. That's hardly fair. It's like going on a game show and answering the correct answer after hearing the first incorrect answer. It's an unfair advantage. W+K's spot also is very, what I jokingly refer to as "real america." That being said, I like their choice of VO much better, use of sound design, the flow of the VO's words, as well as the tag line. (yes, the b/w footage was majorly redneckin')
It also makes me wonder, though, if the world was not ready for GH's approach. I felt there was a step in between missing. I can't just be told what the new approach is, sometimes. I need my hand held and guided to the new place. Jeep long has been the dirt and grit off-road brand. So to immediately jump off into soft-voiced, puppy-jumping-through-hoops, mildly hipster-ish world may have been one step premature.
- G
Love it G.
Carol Wyatt says," I agree with the person Adrian in the blog. Frankly, it doesn't make me RUN OUT and buy a Jeep in either case, but the W+K Ad speaks to the 'soul' of white america...the part of all americans that makes the pledge of alligiance necessary at a sporting event especially when on foreign soil (I say that after having just watched the Game A of the World Cup).
Pride, no matter the ethnicity is something we all have. What's starting to emerge (what we've seen for some time at CHWA) is the similarities in black and white pride...which is ownership of ones soul and keeping the integrity of it.
I understand both spots...I actually like the W+K spot a bit more, due to the 'climate of the economy' and the subliminal message of "building in the USA versus shipping it to China, building it there and then putting a US flag on it".
I will say this...its not about the car in either case....I think the W+K ad takes from the traditional GM advertising (spirit of US) and GH ad attempts to give a viewer the desire to skip work and have some fun (spirit of the American worker). I derive that from the fact the American Workers have less time to play than any other country pretty much (based on the length of our vacations over other cultures).
I have a question- If you stripped out the Jeep product in the W + K ad, couldn't it be for any American made product. Tube socks and Budweiser even? If the idea and strategy can be placed on any product made in America- is it really a pinpointed and distinguishing strategy to build a re-brand off of?
I disagree with the commenter about GH being niche. Jeep needs an redefined identity. W+K is a rally call for America as a country. Not about Jeep as Brand. That should have be a an ad for General Motors. Because GM has no distinguishing ethos. GH gets to the mentality and ethotic idea of the Jeep brand. Yes it can be broken into many small pieces and insights, but that doesn't make it niche. That make it penetrable.
I vote GH-1 W+K-0
-R39W
The critical difference here involves each agency’s history. That is, W+K routinely does great work. GH routinely does mediocre work. To say W+K’s garbage makes GH’s garbage less smelly misses the point. All you’re saying is that W+K’s garbage is about equal to GH’s greatest stuff. GH’s Jeep stuff started bad, maintained mediocrity and ended worse. Let’s see where W+K ultimately goes.
Anon, I see your point. But where is the outcry. GH got dumped on and jumped all over immediately. Notice the difference in attitudes towards the ad makers. Even you suggest giving WK a chance to see where they go. So your suggesting give the A+ big time great work agency a chance. But the ad community literally wished said the shop should be put out of business for a very similar effort. Double standard?
Chris Rock said something about, "equality being reached when a black man can fail like a white man..."
I'm not suggesting either ad/strategy failed, but the silence from the ad community on this speaks volumes.
P.S. Anon, we are not judging agency's history here. We are looking at the campaigns on very close to level playing fields. I don't believe this client went in and said if your ad is lousy we'll forget about our sales and the money we spent with you and we'll just be happy that a shop with your history graced us with a campaign...
...or maybe they did?
I believe if we gave GH the time & grace period you suggest for WK we would see them, just like WK, hone in and knock this out of the park.
I'm not giving W+K a grace period. Just saying GH campaign sucked from beginning to end. The spots sucked. The print sucked. What's more, GH's multicultural Jeep work has sucked. W+K's Jeep spot is better than GH's spot. A little contrived, yes, but at least it is dramatizing the brand. GH's first spot had nothing to do with the vehicle. It was a bad ad, poorly executed.
Anon, point taken. Not necessarily totally agreed with but well taken and appreciated.
Don't you think GH kinda nailed the hipster/poser in most Jeep aficionados? Who the hell really goes 'muddin'" in their Jeep? But the realness of our shared desire to really get the f*ck out of the office rub handfuls of raw life in your face resonates?
Also, don't ya think WK kinda rode in on the lie of ruggedness Americans believe about themselves, perhaps to our detriment? Your Jeep is air conditioned has the comfiest suspension & 18 way adjustable arm-chairs. The rugged angle is kinda erroneous. I know it's not a morality contest, but won't the lie eventually wear thin and usurp the power of the brand?
But really it's worked for Jeep since WWII, so maybe you're right. I think I accidentally agreed with you, LOL!
But hey, I'm not here to just be contrarian. I think I now better see your point.
No, I don't think GH nailed anything. The problem with their stuff was they fell in love with their brief/research. The copy read like a strategy statement. That's the sign of an unsophisticated agency.
Both campaigns are aimed at different audiences so, to me, its like comparing apples and oranges. They don't even compete with each other because they don't have the same target. For each of their targets, they were good and they would reach them equally. So it ends up being about WHO the client wanted to reach and in this case it wasn't the urban hipster, it was the suburban and rural "maverick." But I have another problem.
Both of these concepts are supposed to be broadcast campaigns and yet they were specifically packaged not to reach ME.
Why?
Am I not part of the American melting pot?
One commenter mentioned that they the campaigns did not appeal to him at all and yet that was because it wasn't intended to. Nor was it intended to appeal to Asians nor Hispanics. What the hell is that? Who built this country? And feeds and creates the consumer goods for these "urban hipsters?"
We carry the expertise to use a variety of tools to reach our markets and we, consciously, choose which ones we employ. So the lack of representation was a well thought out act of exclusion practiced by both parties. And it wasn't necessary to do so for the concepts to work. AND they would have reached a broader market.
Shouldn't this be the conversation we are having?
I'm not sure I agree with Pangaea's Garden. The campaigns were aimed at the same audience. GH did not produce a minority-targeted effort --- they produced a mass market campaign. Ditto W+K. The agencies simply chose to define the audience differently, in terms of what would appeal to them.
Im 99% sure by the end of the year Global Hue will not have JEEP as a client anymore. Theirs a deeper subliminal meaning to all of this. W+K message subliminally taps on the notion of the "US"-whites did everything for this country and the "other"-minorities, where are they in that spot? The W+K isnt racist its just taps into the we vs them. The republicans do it in their campaigns all the time. McCain does it, palin did it, and its not just political figures. Vanity fair, nascar etc Brands do this all the time, its called focusing on the "target" market. GM had ads all the time that focused on the "american heartland" all u saw in the imagery where white guys wearing cowboy gear driving their trucks to construction sites.
Referencing the comment on the targeted consumer, while both campaigns may have been intended for the same age, sex and racial demographics they were not targeted to the same cultures. Politically speaking, you might say that GH's concepts were aimed at the Blue States and that the W+K campaign was aimed at the Red States.
With regards to that 'subliminal tap,' I don't want to come across as antagonistic but this is a forum of ideas so I put out this notion. By purposely packaging images of 'US-whites' as either single-handedly building America (W+K) or as being the only ones to deserve to enjoy the fruits of the labor of those who built it (GH) both campaigns are racist. I don't call the creators of the campaigns racists; they were both making honest attempts to give the client what they wanted. But even the American Heartland is not a white-only arena. The very fact that they perpetuate a perception of America as anything other than its racial and cultural melting pot is racist. Now that's the notion but not the question.
The questions are did they present a more culturally diverse campaign and did the client requested changes to it? If they didn't could they have done so? IF IT HAD BEEN YOU... competing for that account, what would you have done?
Seriously.
Anon, I don't think the WK spot is about we vs them at all! It's about us-us-us! By that I mean the hubristic nature of the target. I don't think it's racist, it's exclusive as targeted ads should be.
But maybe that's what you felt when you watched it. And that is something that advertisers from the demo they are advertising to can to very well.
Two different messages. GH went “Me” while W+K went “Us.” I’d argue though that I think the Americana tone in the W+K spot was too forced, the voice a little too deliberate. I love the vibe of their Levi’s B&W Walt Whitman spot. I would’ve preferred that tone here; just felt more natural.
Going back though to GH, what about the original I Am Ram campaign. Someone’s lying if they say that campaign is not the same as I Am Jeep. Which came first then, the Jeep or the Ram, or like everything else with general market, GSD&M came up with Ram, then the brand told GH to follow their lead.
I only mention that because GH’s work is being held up as original, when a blind person could see the Ram/Jeep work have the same father. And ironically, that Ram work blended both W+K’s and GH’s voice with its Like A Rock/I love America vibe.
We may also be too hung up on selling this idea of “America” these days when consumers are confused as to just what that means anymore, let alone if it even resonates that way it once did.
Not sure why the earlier comment predicted GH would lose Jeep. GH has been doing minority-targeted Jeep work for a while, and will likely continue doing so. The recent GH Jeep campaign was an assignment. It's not clear if GH was ever completely given the account as AOR; in fact, it's highly unlikely. All the trade sources said it was just an assignment. It could have led to more if GH had done a stellar job, but they didn't.
This is so educational to me. Great post Craig!
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