Why you shouldn’t want people to think your ad is good.

A while back I had a debate with a marketing manager about the creative direction we were taking. It seems we had differing objectives. “Don’t you want people to look at these promotions and think, wow, they’re really cool?” she asked.

She was a little surprised when I replied, “No.” After all, who doesn’t like praise? But that's not what the work should be about. If consumers are focusing on the creative, then they aren’t focusing on the message that creative is trying to communicate.

I’ll bet you can think of at least one ad in which you don’t remember what was being sold or who was selling it. And there’re probably people who thought it was a good ad because it was clever … or funny … or pretty.

I would much rather have people say that the product, service or offer is good. What reaction do you want from your advertising?