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Divorce Ad Is Great Marketing Psychology
Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood got a racy billboard urging unhappy people to get a divorce. Did you see
this? Whether you agree with the ad or not, you have to admit it fulfills the twin functions of marketing and advertising:
1.) Get noticed
2.) Get people to take action
Apparently it did just that, according to the partners of the law firm: “Despite its brief run, the sign apparently was good for business. Since it went up last week, the two women said calls to their law firm have gone up dramatically.”
Why were they talking about it in the past tense? Ho-ho, that’s the Law Of Unintended Consequences coming into play.
Who was the billboard targeted at? Their ideal client – deep-pocketed residents of that neighborhood know for its nightlife and glitzy cars.
Click here to read the entire news story.
Also it shows up what happens when clever graphic design meets great copy.
Bee-you-ti-ful.
By Walter |
Topics: Client Top Secret, From The Trenches, Pro Analysis |
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June 8th, 2007 at 8:57 am
This one has my mind racing to figure out if there is any moral obligation marketers have to the people they are marketing to. Not a thought I typically have: wonder why this ad has me thinking it.
I still miss the KFC ad from a few years back where the girl comes up and tells the guy he’s looking great, and he replies it’s due to his low-carb KFC diet. I love KFC… but REALLY?
June 8th, 2007 at 9:14 am
And yet as marketers, it’s their obligation to put their own and their client wares in front of the target audience and it is totally their decision to pick it up and use or not use, isn’t it?
Your KFC exs perfectly illustrates that morality (to say nothing of accuracy) doesn’t always enter the picture. And in the case of the divorce ad, what do you think was morally lacking?
Look at the target audience (I included it for a reason). If you reside in that part of Chicago and have more money than the sense to wield it wisely and are preoccupied with exterior trappings and the surface of life as opposed to its substance, then wouldn’t that billboard be a perfectly-targeted ad to that market?
Or do you think that is **my** innate prejudices showing?
June 8th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
It must have been an innate sense of protectiveness for people in bad marriages I was feeling and how vulnerable they might be when seeing the ad. Yet I wouldn’t have a valid argument against the billboard because marketing is targeted at people in healthy and unhealthy mental states alike.
If I argued against this ad, I’d be arguing against most of what is on TV, which I’m not as I cherish free speech. In the end, it’s so cutting you can’t help but be cut, which is why people are responding.
In conclusion, my name is Kyle and I’m a hypocrite. Did I spell that right?
June 10th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Very good debate, Kyle. And yet I’m wondering why you think people in bad marriages need protecting? If you’re in a bad marriage, you know it, the other party knows it and probably many in each of the extended circles know it.
Are you saying that it’s possible that a married person can see that billboard and be influenced to get a divorce they would not have otherwise sought?
And who says getting a divorce is a healthy or unhealthy mental state? It’s very likely that choosing to get out of a bad or going-nowhere marriage/relationships is the most healthy thing one can do.
I also find it curious that you consider the ad “cutting.” In what ways did you find it so?
You’re not a hypocrite. Or at least no more nor no less than the rest of us.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:49 am
That was probably it, concern a marriage that could be worked through would get pushed over the edge by the ad. The reason it seems cutting is actually the dialogue more than the images:
“Life’s Short. Get a Divorce.”
In concert with the images, it seems more like a prompter to trade in what you have than to get out of something truly bad. As evidenced by my above posts and the general public reaction, its a controversial ad for me and others. Here’s a couple of possibilities that outline my differing views:
Scenario A: The ad prompts someone out of an otherwise great marriage because they have images of Victoria Secret Models or Chippendales dancing in their head.
Scenario B: The ad gives someone in a bad marriage such a gut reaction that they get out of a bad situation and go on to live a life of self-actualization.
Bottomline: It’s effective marketing, no two ways as evidenced by us talking about it now.