In which I have watched too much Mad Men.
So I came across the new Yahoo! ad “Start Wearing Purple,” and my first thoughts were 1) Gogol Bordello seems like a weird choice to base your campaign around and 2) what is up with the tech lifestyle branding trend? True, Apple has been doing it forever, but the more recent “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads really made the whole “product choice as an embodiment of your soul” thing blatant. And Microsoft released the “I’m a PC and I wear glasses/blog for Obama/am Deepak Chopra” ad just a few weeks ago.
Interesting, though, that Google has yet to really play this game. Of course, when your company name is a verb, I guess you don’t really need to self-promote too much. The only kind of “lifestyle-y” video I can think of for Google is the collaborative Gmail video, which, like the majority of their promotions, is innovative but also kind of geeky and silly. I think, at this point, Google is smart to stay away from these overt lifestyle ad campaigns. The smugness of the Apple and PC commercials are turn-offs, and this Start Wearing Purple site is a mess of all things viral. (Overdesigned Flash site? International bike tours? Hidden camera pranks? Check, check, and check.)
Google can be all things to all people if it avoids overt appeals to a certain demographic. And when you get down to it, these services are about information management and communication, not consumer identity (unlike Target, Starbucks, Nike, MTV, Volkswagon, Disney, etc which thrive on corporate humanity).
But let us remember the point of all advertising: making the customer feel good. As Don Draper would say, “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.” And I’m sorry, Yahoo, but your muddled Purple campaign does not make me feel OK.
