Scam ads: are they that bad for advertising?
OPINION: By Vivian Grieg
The entanglement between bad taste and scam increased after the recent DDB Brazil 9/11 ad.
Butare all scam ads bad for advertising? Should all scam advertisementscarry the damnation of our industry? Scams can also be entertaining,informative and opportunistic.
Scam ads have been appearing onYouTube showing their popularity among the viewing public. The FakeMini Viral is a great example of how production companies can showtheir ability to build on the agency’s idea.
Banning bad taste from advertising would be a great idea but do wealso ban the shock value and impact of driver safety campaigns thatare operating effectively? Exploiting the misery of others to raisemoney for charity is a strategy that no one trends on.
But scam isn’t always shown in bad taste. What about scam competitions?
Most clients demurely allow positive scam. AusTrade say the recentBuilding Brand Australia logo competition “has absolutely nothing todo with us so we aren’t providing any advice and haven’t been askedfor any. We aren’t accepting logos or anything else outside of theformal procurement process”. There were 362 respondents from ourindustry to the competition vs 60 for the Tender’s credentialsubmissions.
The legal system is there to stop abusive ordestructive scam. But banning all scams takes them out of the adindustry judges’ ability to assess their creativity. Let the scams beseen for what they are, freewheeling ideas that weren’t harnessed. Ifscams do cross boundaries, their creators do so at their peril asclients and consumers will determine their future candidacy in theworld of advertising.
Vivian Greig