Simplistic Distortion

Consider this print ad for a brand which makes running shoes for women:

Visual: A picture of rural surroundings where women are jogging.

Headline: ‘We believe women should be running the country ’

Our conscious reactions to such ads are quite different from our reactions to straight ads. Typically we react with at least mild appreciation of how ‘cute’ and ‘clever’ the ad is. Such ads do more than just entertain. Research indicates that, other things being equal, we recall these ads better, we have greater liking for them and we are less inclined to engage in counter-arguing against them. But an important point to note about such ads is that they often seem to stop us momentarily. Mostly we understand the communication immediately- usually automatically and without effort. There is a brief ‘interrupt’ in the flow of our mental processing. Sometimes ads are too intelligent for understanding of its own people, it increases the mental processing time of consumers and insults their intelligence. This kind of creative packaging of simple messages sometimes brings in the phenomena of Simplistic Distortion.

To understand the phenomena we shall now look into a famous Indian Commercial for Panasonic entry level mobile phone featuring Bipasha Basu. The ad was developed by Triton Communication and was shot by Film maker Rohan Sippy in Bangkok.

Product: Mobile phone category. The phone is Panasonic's offer at the entry level.

USP: Distinct physical aspect - its mini size.

Target: The brand is targeting the youth.

Message: 'It is the only phone that easily fits into the tiny watch pocket of the young ones' jeans'.

Visual: Bipasha basu (Model) is in a discothèque with young blood wooing her for a dance.

The brand communication created a lot of roar with Bipasha Basu's declaring "I'll go for the one with the smallest". The commercial was edgy but did the message get across. Research showed high recall for the ad but what happened to the brand. Panasonic’s small phone is no where today and that as a proof of advertising effectiveness is enough. Of course advertising is not the only factor to led product failure but has definitely contributed. Most of the people interpreted the ‘smallest’ to be the part of their body which they are most egoistic about- the part below the belt. The massage was distorted such that it embarrassed the very segment it targeted- the youths. The message which has to be conveyed to the target group was totally misinterpreted.

Here is an another example this time- MR Coffee, instant coffee processor which tried to compete with instant coffees that dominate the Indian market, ran a controversial ad campaign showing a couple (Malaika Arora and Arbaaz Khan) under the sheets. The slogan was: "Real pleasure does not come in an instant." The company says sales doubled in the first six months.

They followed this up with an advertisement for a ‘buy one, get one free’ promotional offer showing a young model in a bra that was made out of their colorful triple laminate packaging material for their filter coffee brand. She stands with arms wide-open saying – “Buy one, take home two!” However, apart from the obvious perceptions in relation to their advertising, the brand itself does not have much recall today.

What went wrong? The Ad makers didn’t take into account the costumer which in India for coffee maker at the time of launch was housewives. Both the advertisement and the especially the brand name left the housewives left embarrassed to ask for it in the shop. This and several other campaigns are not at all context-sensitive. What the ad says has nothing to do with the life or lifestyle of the target group. Over all a distorted message conveyed through an ad too bold for the bowel of target audience.

According to John Philips John, professor of Public Communication Syracuse University, New York- Advertising in India should be talking more on the lines of ‘Modulating arguments’ because many product categories are in the underdeveloped stages unlike in mature market such as U.S. There, the advertising needs to be more led towards ‘Discriminating arguments’.

Something really cheap in a market like India might be hampered with a tagline too clever for its own good. This brings in another form of Simplistic distortion called ‘Klinkers’. Sometimes, creative teams to feel a need to introduce a tagline almost gratuitously- for no functional reason other than it appear clever-especially in the sign-off lines at the end of commercial. Irrelevant throwaway lines called Klinkers at the end of commercial are sometimes totally distorted. Furthermore, they are likely to erase short-term memory and interfere with the main message of the ad. They can be contrasted with sign-off lines that reinforces the message; for example:

‘Tata Indica- More car per car’

Such reinforcement at the end of a commercial are called ‘Klitchniks’.