There's Two Sides to Every Story
In one corner we have Denver agency Pure, with its ad for Cessna that defends the CEO's right to private jets...
And in the other we have JWT pitching Jetblue to all of those same CEO's who might be thinking of heeding to the public outcry for them to fly commercial...
Which do you find more effective?
Personally, I'm drawn to the Jetblue ad. I like the tone, lighthearted and poking a bit of fun while not insulting the very people it's trying to attract. Sure, maybe it reads more to the common man than the CEO that it's aiming for but they aren't that different from us, are they?
The tone on the Cessna ad, while probably spot on for who it's talking to (CEOs) is, in my mind, dragged down by some of the word choices. I understand Pure trying to use "fancy words" to speak to the highly astute CEO, but "timidity?" Something about using such an uncommon and fairly awkward word right off the bat makes me stop and say, "what? Is that even a word? Oh, yeah it is. Now what were you trying to sell me?" And has anyone ever thought about their own timidity? Have you ever heard anyone, even those highly educated CEO types, use the word? Somehow I think they overshot the idea of using more sophisticated language and landed in the realm of English snobbery. Oh, and ditto for "tempestuous." Don't get me wrong, I know what it means, but I don't really know what it means here. It just seems like, as an old English teach of mine used to say, a thesaurus was used but it hindered rather than helped get the point across.
But of course no critique is complete without a how I would do it better / different, so in this case I'd look into what sort of language CEOs actually use to describe the core idea here: timidity, cowardice, hesitation, weakness, however you want to say it. Maybe I'd try to speak to some CEOs (or at least read an interview) and see what CEOs are saying about the private plane crackdown.
To counterpoint myself, I must say that the rest of the Cessna copy is great. But those two words, which to me are fairly pivotal to the point being communicated here (you could summarize this ad by saying "Timidity has no place in tempestuous times") just throw me for a loop.
What do you think?
(images via Agency Spy and Denver Egotist)
And in the other we have JWT pitching Jetblue to all of those same CEO's who might be thinking of heeding to the public outcry for them to fly commercial...
Which do you find more effective?
Personally, I'm drawn to the Jetblue ad. I like the tone, lighthearted and poking a bit of fun while not insulting the very people it's trying to attract. Sure, maybe it reads more to the common man than the CEO that it's aiming for but they aren't that different from us, are they?
The tone on the Cessna ad, while probably spot on for who it's talking to (CEOs) is, in my mind, dragged down by some of the word choices. I understand Pure trying to use "fancy words" to speak to the highly astute CEO, but "timidity?" Something about using such an uncommon and fairly awkward word right off the bat makes me stop and say, "what? Is that even a word? Oh, yeah it is. Now what were you trying to sell me?" And has anyone ever thought about their own timidity? Have you ever heard anyone, even those highly educated CEO types, use the word? Somehow I think they overshot the idea of using more sophisticated language and landed in the realm of English snobbery. Oh, and ditto for "tempestuous." Don't get me wrong, I know what it means, but I don't really know what it means here. It just seems like, as an old English teach of mine used to say, a thesaurus was used but it hindered rather than helped get the point across.
But of course no critique is complete without a how I would do it better / different, so in this case I'd look into what sort of language CEOs actually use to describe the core idea here: timidity, cowardice, hesitation, weakness, however you want to say it. Maybe I'd try to speak to some CEOs (or at least read an interview) and see what CEOs are saying about the private plane crackdown.
To counterpoint myself, I must say that the rest of the Cessna copy is great. But those two words, which to me are fairly pivotal to the point being communicated here (you could summarize this ad by saying "Timidity has no place in tempestuous times") just throw me for a loop.
What do you think?
(images via Agency Spy and Denver Egotist)
posted by Justin at
10:31 PM
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