Can you spot what’s wrong with this ad?
A father is cleaning out his Subaru Forester.
He finds a crayon from when his daughter was in grade school … and reflects.
He finds a hospital wristband from when she broke her leg … and reflects.
He finds a wilted flower from a school dance … and reflects.
He tosses his grown daughter the keys and says, “she’s all yours.”
Enter the announcer, “You can pass down a Subaru, but you get to keep the memories.”
Love … it’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.
5 Steps to Faster approvals.
A father is cleaning out his Subaru Forester.
He finds a crayon from when his daughter was in grade school … and reflects.
He finds a hospital wristband from when she broke her leg … and reflects.
He finds a wilted flower from a school dance … and reflects.
He tosses his grown daughter the keys and says, “she’s all yours.”
Enter the announcer, “You can pass down a Subaru, but you get to keep the memories.”
Love … it’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.
As a father to a 12 and 14-year-old, this touched my heart.
The ad doesn’t focus on price or features. It doesn’t spout off gas mileage stats or tout awards. It makes you feel!
They took a page from Don Draper’s playbook in “The Wheel.”
“In Greek, ‘nostalgia,’ literally means, ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory, alone.”
I love this ad! I wish I wrote it.
But … I’ve had clients that wouldn’t let the spot see the light of day for one simple reason. Did you catch what’s wrong with this ad?
Spoiler: Once I tell you, you’ll never look at this emotional ad the same again…
This ad assumes that the dad hasn’t cleaned out his car in a dozen years. Seriously, why is all that crap still floating around his back seat?!?!
You think I’m joking? I’ve had clients that wouldn’t let this great ad, that’s being run nationally by Subaru with a huge media spend, run in their little burg … because we all clean out our cars more than once a decade.
The point is that, in marketing and advertising, we often get too close to our work. There’s no magic number, but at some point, it is more important to get a message into the market than to make edits to version number 19 of an ad.
A former boss always said, “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.” And he’s right. Don’t overthink your message to the point that it becomes watered down. If you focus on these five core attributes to an ad, you’ll be ready to approve it:
- Is it factual?
- Is it on brand?
- Does it stand out (Make you feel? Differentiate? Is it impactful?)
- Can you clearly define the one main message?
- Is it legally and grammatically correct?
If you can answer yes to all 4 questions? Then get the damn ad out! Don’t worry about minutia like when the last time this poor dude cleaned out his car last.
See also: Emotion: The Key to Engagement & Sales
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