DON'T JERK AROUND YOUR ADVERTISING

I hopped in the car last night, and immediately heard a commercial for a local car dealer.

The entire premise of the 60-second message was "We won't jerk you around."

Granted, there was some valuable sales pitch in there, like how they really do work hard to approve people with credit challenges. But those few real carrots were wildly overshadowed by the constant assertions that "we don't jerk you around" and repeated calls to action that involved a URL and a phone number, both relying heavily on the word "jerk."


JERK IS AS JERK DOES?

I would love to know how this guy's radio commercials are working. Because from the standpoint of an automobile consumer, I was left totally cold. The entire advertising message was a protestation of something that (a) hadn't been on my mind and (b) reinforced the idea of being jerked around.

Were this advertiser my client, I would have asked hm to stop telling me what he wasn't going to do, and start telling me what was so great about shopping there.


WHAT'S THE BETTER REALITY?

I've done a lot of car dealer advertising, and one of the most gratifying things you can find out about such an advertiser is that people love shopping there. Then, it's a matter of tapping into the customer experience, and using that glowing light of happy customers to elevate the car dealer's brand.

I've NEVER let an advertiser say, "We don't screw you like the other guys." And the reasons are simple. One, it's a reinforcement of the idea you don't want prospects to consider. And two, in pointing an accusing finger at the competitor, it also points the finger right back at the advertiser.


RADIO IS A DANGEROUS MEDIUM--HANDLE IT CAREFULLY

Unfortunately, we hear "we're not like those other jerks" all too often in radio advertising--the one medium where making such accusations can backfire the worst, simply because radio advertising can be so emotionally charged, so potent, and so emblematic of the notion that people do not pay attention to advertising in any specific, intellectual way but in a generalized, emotional way.

Back when my wife first started working in New York ad agencies, there was a copywriter she worked with who said, "If you're ever in a meeting and my name comes up, never say 'Don't fire John.' Because people never hear the word 'don't.' They hear only the words, 'Fire John.'"

This is a sage piece of advice for any radio advertiser: if you don't want your prospects to know you for something bad, don't reinforce the bad. Emphasize the good.

As Always,

Blaine Parker

A radio advertising Creative Director in Los Angeles for over a decade, Blaine Parker is a principal in Slow Burn Marketing LLC, a small and feisty marketing agency perched on a mountaintop outside Park City, UT. You can find out more about him at www.slowburnmarketing.com