Last week I looked at what I call The Negative Space Effect. This is where you ask: how would people live if your product didn’t exist? and so open up the humorous possibilities (if you missed it, it’s here).
This week, it’s — almost — the opposite question:
How would people live obsessively because your product exists?
It’s a good question to ask because, quite simply, if your product’s great, the idea is people will naturally get obsessed by it. And if they get obsessed with it, what happens to the rest of their life?
Rugby-players (literally) take their eye off the ball…
…Wedding photographers forget about focussing on the happy couple (instead focussing on the bus behind)…
…Meanwhile, in TV ads, people go to extra lengths to get their fix…
…Even to the point of getting up in the middle of the night and raiding the fridge…
It’s actually worth looking a little closer at this campaign. R. White’s Lemonade ran ‘The Secret Lemonade Drinker’ throughout much of the 1970s1. So successful was it they re-introduced it in the early 1990s and a decade later when they introduced R. Whites lollies…
Now, seeing the two ads above, you might think they cost a hundred quid to make — if that — and look a bit, well, rubbish.
Think again.
First, the campaign was enormously successful, with its memorable jingle and simple story of midnight subterfuge entering the British public consciousness and staying there. In 2018 Britvic, who own R. White’s, noted that ‘it is a household brand worth more than £250 million, growing +0.5% year-on-year’2.
Slow and steady growth for a household brand that was founded by Robert White in — believe it or not — 1845? Nothing wrong with that.
R. White’s market stall, circa 1900
Second, it’s wise to keep in mind Paul Feldwick’s point that ‘[in advertising] we are not creating a work of high art — we’re putting on a show.’3 Sure, R. White’s Secret never won any advertising awards, but I’m sure their sales team weren’t losing much sleep. The bottles were flying off the shelves.
All of which brings us to a key point about using obsession in funny ads:
Marketers like it because it shows how great their products are, and how much people love them. But they dislike it because it can make their customers look like fools — and we don’t want to look like fools. This, too often, deters them from using this technique.
This is a shame — let’s face it, Charlie Chaplin played the fool, and he did OK out of it.
What’s more, it would mean we don’t get pocket masterpieces such as this one, for Carlton Draught:
In short: obsession, when done well, can be revolutionary. In our sane, well-ordered lives, there’s something riveting about obsessives, both serious and comic — think of James Bond’s drive to find the next psychopathic nutjob, or David Brent’s obsessive need to be admired. Obsessives in funny ads are equally riveting — and they make us smile, too.
Many thanks for reading,
Paddy
pg@studiogilmore.com
+44 7866 538 233
LinkedIn: here
A little bit of trivia for those interested: the song in the original 1973 ad was written and performed by Ross MacManus, father of Declan MacManus, better known as the great Elvis Costello. Every day’s a schoolday.
Feldwick, Paul: Why Does the Pedlar Sing? Kibworth Beauchamp, Matador, 2021, p. 201.