Fun With Advertising

In these troubled times, the great State and City of New York are looking to boost revenue by encouraging tourists the world over to visit the big city (because, if there's one thing NY needs, it's more tourists). To do so, the NYS Division of Tourism hired a prominent advertising agency to rebrand it's classic "I Love NY" campaign for a new generation.

The results?



Yes, basically they just added a squirrel and some snow.

Generally speaking, I am all for subtle modifications to iconic logos (rather than wholesale changes) when reinvigorating a marketing plan. But this is just an epic advertising FAIL. I would love to have been in the creative room at the agency when someone stated "I know! It needs a SQUIRREL!" And for a mere $17 million dollars, I'd say the taxpayers got their money's worth there, eh?

Meanwhile, across the great blue sea, a controversy has arisen in Australia, ironically also due to bushy-tailed mammals.

A trend piece on sexy ads in the Sydney Morning Herald brought good news. Despite complaints from consumers, the Kimberly-Clark tampon brand Kotex U is keeping a cheeky Australian campaign featuring a woman, her animated beaver and the tagline "You've only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it U." Not surprisingly the ad has sparked complaints (over 150), but it's also helped Kotex gain two share points in the $250 million market and overcome the perception that it's not as reliable as rival products.

Here's the video:



Personally, I love it. It's original and memorable, and sufficiently vague at it's innuendo as to not utterly corrupt the impressionable minds of our youth. If advertising was more like this, maybe the business wouldn't be suffering as much as it apparently is.