Gone are the days where you can get consumers to buy into your brand long-term just by showing them a funny ad, pulling a great PR stunt, or having your tweet go viral. People are fast becoming more self-aware: they look after themselves better, eat clean, train dirty, prioritise, sacrifice, budget, experience, live, travel, learn... they want a full, meaningful existence. They know what's important to them, so it's easy to block out the constant noise of brands who aren't relevant to their lifestyle. Too many brands complicate our lives and it can cause people to "shut down" in the face of too many options. "Brits would not care if 94% of brands disappeared... and people believe only 3% of brands improve their quality of life." - Havas Media: Meaningful Brands Index So your brand jumps on relevant events - great! But is your brand actually relevant to consumers' lives? No? Then who gives a shit. You've risen awareness, but h

I first saw this ad on Wednesday. My initial thought process went like: ' Oooh honest... Mildly amusing... Doesn't make me thirsty...Lazy... Annoying... Who is that even aimed at? Would that sell Oasis?' , I immediately sent it to marketing colleagues and ad friends to get their opinions.  The general consensus from marketers was, ' Is that funny for the consumer? Who is the consumer? Why would they buy Oasis from that? Seems lazy.' My ad friends were slightly more accepting; '' Honesty is a refreshing concept...it's got us talking about it so job done in terms of awareness... love it, it's different. " Typical - marketers think consumer first, advertisers think attention-grabbing first. My main bugbear with this ad is the visual. You're trying to trigger thirst for consumers, so why would you go for a cartoon image over something like this? Regardless of whether you would drink any of the above, you