Wouldn't want to say I told you so ;-)
About a year ago, Media Guardian ran a piece in praise of 'modern' (not really) advertising, in which they put the boot into...and 'killed off' as archaic...the good old 'catchphrase'. Being (in some ways) a bit of a traditionalist at heart, I disagreed. Well I ranted, really. Because I thought they were wrong. And also because most of the examples they gave for the 'future of advertising' seemed pretty conventional to me.
Anyway, a few months later, Mars announced a new line for their energy drink - 'work; rest; play harder', a variation on the 'a Mars a day helps you work rest and play' line, first aired in 1959, but ditched in 1995. Felt slightly vindicated. Had some more words to say.
And now, in today's Campaign, we hear that the line for the new main brand work (after a decade of various nonsense) will be 'work, rest, play'. Nice (although I obviously haven't seen the ads yet!).
As Caroline Jary, the Mars brand manager, says: "we echoed the strapline because it's part of the brand heritage. The updated message helps communicate the brand values as much today as in yesteryear". Exactly. And welcome back...until the next time someone kills it off for being 'old fashioned'.
I'll leave the final word to the Undertones.
The people who think that a strapline is 'old hat' are often the people who think they're "artistes" - well that might be the case but the industry we're in is the commercial art business and straplines help convey a message/ideal/philosophy to the consumers and could be argued are the only thing most of them remember in the plethora of crap that goes out these days under the guise of communication.
I've just spoken about this at the World Effies in Singapore and sadly many of the creatives got their knickers in a right twist, but strangely not the ones who are doing the most innovative and exciting work in the World at the moment.
How are you mate - I've been drowned so I've not been around enough. I will, I love this place.
Posted by: Rob @ Cynic | February 29, 2008 at 13:48
Glad to hear you've been telling the world what's what.
And good to have the Cynic back. Come back soon!
Posted by: Jon Howard | March 01, 2008 at 08:54
'Work, rest and play'
- why do some straplines just work perfectly ?
Instead of trying to be uber modern, why not be completely different and go back to good, old fashioned 'work, rest and play' (it reminds me of when I was a muddy-kneed 12 year old playing football and having a laugh).
Posted by: Eamon | March 10, 2008 at 22:49
When it comes to working with classic campaigns (or not), I think a number of factors come into play...both at agencies and client side.
On the one hand there's the sense of not made here, the desire to make your own mark, and being fixated on the new (which has its merits).
On the other, there can be a laziness and failure of the imagination, when it comes to seeing how you can do all this within the context of a long running campaign.
Having said that tho, I don't think the new Mars commercial is great!
Posted by: Jon Howard | March 11, 2008 at 08:02