Sad-vertising

I'm pretty chuffed that Admap are about to publish my first article (thanks Roderick and co for your encouragement).


"Sad-vertising - the downbeat path to true emotional resonance" will appear in the December 06 edition. I've been sitting on the thinking for about a year now but it's taken some real-world frustrations (with both agency folk and clients) to finally force me to put pen to paper. Hopefully something will come of it... if only it prevents people from making sweeping assumptions about the nature of emotion and the way we should use it in advertising.

In a nut-shell (a very big nut, at least a Brazil) "Sad-vertising" asks why we are wary of harnessing / evoking "negative" emotion in brand communications. Life is a complex of ups and downs, and yet the advertising world feels comfortable only with the upbeat. Who wants to live in a world which is all upbeat all the time? Why do we believe consumers would rather see glossy, artificial renderings of their lives rather than tonally accurate, recognisable, poignant and meaningful communications? I believe that truly great communications probe the downbeat as much as the upbeat, and resonate more deeply with consumers as a result. "Sad-vertising" is a meticulous, if not cramped, consideration of what we're missing by only playing with "positive" emotions in advertising.

The few who've read the piece have given good reviews... so let's hope they didn't just want something from me.

I'll upload the article if I can just figure out how...(thought don't hold your breath, I'm a blogging virgin and knowing my luck I'll probably lose the location of this blog just as soon as I log-off).

My first post if full of uncertainty...

Will this be my only post? Or will I deliver quarterly essays and hope that the maxim of quality-not-quantity will somehow sate the needy and fad-embracing advertising blogosphere?

Or will I be a true blogger, trading priceless social hours for updates to my photos of interesting toilets, perspectives on 1980s spy dramas and weekly polls? (given I have yet to learn how to install polls, you will have to make do with a "weekly pole"... this time round, Lech Walesa, first dempcratically elected President of Poland).

The title seems lazy and too broad... should I change it? Why would I think in the midst of an industry-wide discourse on the power of emotion that a title encouraging "feeling" would in any way have cut-through? Surely we must already be well on the way to littering Britain with emotive, melancholy ads?

Will I manage to freely communicate the entirety of my opinion whilst remaining professional, inoffensive and not burdening my colleagues or clients?

Will anyone read?

Who knows?