Here’s the thing… Dandruff? It’s contagious.
See, I didn’t even know that.
Thanks, Advertising!
Who knows what other germs lurk within if your scalp is telling tales out of school!
Germs, Flakes, SCALES! The madness.
Ladies aren’t stupid. You might have grown up being told dandruff was just dry skin but women know it’s pure germitude! You have filthy, dirty microorganisms living in your scalp. This is disgusting. And this lovely lady doesn’t want any part of it. (This particular lovely lady also happens to have some sort of magnifying x-ray vision so, you’re probably better off without her, lest she desiccate your very soul).
Take your communicable bacteria and scram, Mister!
Some say he earned his degree at a prestigious Ivy League school. Others say he created his diploma on his Mac using Photoshop. Either way, Doctor is his name and Advertising is his game.
This ad was way ahead of its time. No body copy! This was a time when an ad for the drinking water could wang-on for five columns, but this is utter simplicity. Just a snap-snap-snappity headline (using lead-caps and all-caps liberally) and a few random words in the bottom right corner. That’s all the text you need when the message is this heinous.
So, here’s the brief: Dandruff is a highly contagious killer of men, women and children. Stop it now before it stops us. Don’t want to die? Then take care of the deadly dandruff. Now.
When you look at the image, it’s a bit concerning. First off, is he man-handling that young woman? The cad. Look at that sly grin… what’s he thinking about? And where exactly is he looking? Has he been drinking? I hate that guy.
But then look at the young lady… what’s that, she’s whistling. This man has health problems and she giving him the business with a snide little whistle. Total bitch-cakes. And if she really loved the flaky, scaley, germy dude, she’d give him the Royal Welcome anyway.
What exactly is the “Royal Welcome”? Sounds exotic. Got past the censors, so good work ________.
Yeah, so what is the product? What is the brand? Where do you get it? OOOPS. I’m all primed to take care of this deadly dandruff disease, but I’m not getting the key info. What am I supposed to buy. Somebody’s client is going to be pissed when they realize the agency forgot the brandname, logo, price, etc. Unless this is just a PSA warning Americans about the dangers of dandruff? I don’t think so.
Well, this is the worst part of my job, but I must inform you that this ad just can’t be saved. Without the critical information of what product we are advertising, there just isn’t anything we can do. I’m very sorry. We did everything we could.
See you next Wednesday!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23988982@N04/2279384321/
Nice.
A ‘Royal Welcome’ is one of those things that you hear your buddies talking about but don’t really know what it means, so you google it when you get home and then rue the day, because there are just some things your brain isn’t meant to know and no matter how hard you try, you can’t un-learn the knowledge.
And yes, Prince Albert is said to have invented it.
The Life Tussle puts the “Royal We” in “Royal Welcome”.