In advertising, the only thing more obvious than a real hit, is a real miss. Sometimes the misses are even more entertaining, despite the damage they may do to the brand and its goals. With that in mind, we’re proud to inaugurate the “Advertising Hits and Misses” series. Each episode will bring you two ads from the same brand. One’s a hit, the other is a miss. Despite the miss, please know that these are brands we love. The fact that they are showing up here means they have touched greatness and that they’ve been creative and taken chances, and we definitely salute that.
“A hit is a hit, and that’s not a hit”
Herman “Hesh” Rabkin (“The Sopranos”)
For Episode 1, we bring you Tabasco, a familiar little bottle packed with peppery power. These guys have brought out some great ads over the past few years, but being edgy always brings the chance of going a little too far out for the masses. So here’s a hit and a miss from Tabasco advertising:
The Tabasco Hit: “Mosquito”
This is everything we love about Tabasco! It’s tasty torture. We punish ourselves with an addiction to the way it heats us up. This Tabasco ad captures that perfectly without words, then delivers a heck of a punchline.
The Tabasco Miss: “Singing Pepperoni”
There’s no doubt that this Tabasco commercial is creative. There’s also no doubt that the barbershop quartet may be the most underused musical style in modern advertising. What makes this Tabasco ad miss in a big way is that human faces on pepperoni are creepy and unappetizing. If there’s one rule to advertising a food product, it’s “don’t make the viewer want to NOT eat the food”.
That concludes episode 1 of “Advertising Hits and Misses”. Check back for more of these pairings in the near future!
 |
