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>Here's a promotional film on the car that was sent to me on Saturday. It's almost impossible for me to believe this passes for work today. It's incomprehensibl

by jasode 7y ago

>Here's a promotional film on the car that was sent to me on Saturday. It's almost impossible for me to believe this passes for work today. It's incomprehensible, unappealing, uninteresting and meaningless. It provides no information that makes me want the car. The blog author misunderstands that the BMW car video ad is deliberately not supposed to convey concrete information. Abstract ads are typical of "brand awareness advertising" vs "product specific advertising". I made some previous comments about the difference between "concrete informational ads" vs "abstract aspirational ads"[0][1]. Yes, the ad agencies choosing to communicate abstract ads are infuriating to us but they don't care because they are going for a deliberate and calculated emotional effect. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20034558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20034558 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9877422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9877422

solatic 7y ago
You're missing the larger change in society that advertising is adapting to. Few people have the attention span anymore to read all of the copy in BMW's old ads. Ad agencies could hire Hemingway himself, it wouldn't make any difference. People look at the picture, the headline, and move on. So-called brand advertising (at least, print brand advertising) serves as an admission on the part of marketers that, if they can't fit the whole AIDA model into a single ad anymore, they can at least try to push Awareness as much as possible. Doesn't mean that brand advertising is particularly effective.
- uryga 7y ago
  > Few people have the attention span anymore to read all of the copy in BMW's old ads or could it be that everything is so oversaturated with ads that spending two minutes voluntarily reading fluffy ad copy just doesn't seem like a great use of time, even if it's well written? attention span is its own problem, but connecting the two like this seems... odd. --- EDIT, had more thoughts on this i mean, i like the old VW Beetle ads. they're charming and clever and i enjoy reading them. but that's because the element of "trying to get me to buy something" isn't relevant anymore, i'm experiencing the (long-dead) ad willingly. but if the ad is a normal ad i see in a magazine... no way i'm giving it my undivided attention for two minutes just so it can manipulate me into liking X
  - jonfw 7y ago
    I agree, there is still plenty of money invested in product placements in long form content, or sponsored 'review' articles. It's not so much that they don't write copy, it's that they try to avoid telling you that it's copy
- new2628 7y ago
  Hemingway is kind of a bad example here because he writes short and to the point.
  - jotm 7y ago
    So, no matter how short he could write it, it won't beat a meme-like image
    - zaat 7y ago
      For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
- dfxm12 7y ago
  Few people have the attention span anymore to read all of the copy in BMW's old ads. Few brand owners or ad agencies also want to produce an ad that doesn't play globally. It's harder for things to get lost in (literal) translation when there are fewer words to translate. It's cheaper too!
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  Disagree. MI5 used to run full page,text only ads without even mentioning their org in the text.Those who needed to understand understood the gist of it. Jack Daniels text ads in London underground stations have more text than the other 50 stacked together. It's different,it attracts and it somehow works.
vishnugupta 7y ago
I’d be curious to know the author’s take on Apple’s Think Different campaign/commercial
silvestrov 7y ago
> is deliberately not supposed to convey concrete information > a deliberate and calculated emotional effect. When there is no concrete information the emotional effect for me is to close the video. All this "aspirational" puts me off and I'll think "only vapid and empty people like this".
- Veen 7y ago
  Then you are not the target audience. BMW positions itself as a luxury brand. Aspiration is key to its success. If you consider aspiration and luxury "vapid and empty" you aren't who BMW is trying to connect with in this ad.
  - silvestrov 7y ago
    I buy primarily luxury brands, I just don't see "aspirational" and luxury being equivalent. High quality luxus items have a quality of their own which has nothing to do with aspirational aspects.
    - scandox 7y ago
      From the luxury items RFC: Luxury items MAY be high quality but they MUST be aspirational.
    - tadhgds 7y ago
      You might ask yourself if the luxury brands you buy are actually as high quality as you think. Do you survey the items for signs of superior quality? It's not a very easy thing to do if your not educated in the matter. I'm not suggesting you are wrong in your thoughts or beliefs, but you might discover that some products are not evidently higher quality and that the assumption of quality came about as a result of its association with the idea of of luxury and aspiration. for example, clothing construction at the higher levels is not exactly easy to judge. I don't know anything about stitching patterns or common fail points, but if Ralph Lauren advertise in a way that suggests that the people who wear their clothes are also the people who wear Rolex and drive Mercedes, people will make that connection. Even if you think immune to this stuff, you aren't. If you think you could be classified into any particular social group, you are probably riddled with these kind of beliefs. I think it takes a prolonged and deliberate effort to avoid the tricks of advertising
rypskar 7y ago
I think it also is about not understanding the difference in the media it could be used in. The video is of the type you could see as an ad on YouTube or before a movie at the cinema, this video is one of the few I might watch without skipping as soon as possible (but should have been an E21 not an E30 to make it better). The longer print ads with more information I could have read if they where in one of the car magazines I read.
george_morgan 7y ago
You should probably check the authors resume: https://georgetannenbaum.com/resume/ https://georgetannenbaum.com/resume/ He certainly understands the concept of brand and product advertising.
Tepix 7y ago
I'm in the target audience for this new BMW model as well and found the ad to be unappealing.
asdff 7y ago
This is why to this day you see these wild perfume ads, with sexy people fondling eachother and not much of anything happening really. No, these companies are not burning piles of ad money every year they put out an ad like this, this stuff actually works believe it or not. Otherwise that cash would not be spent.

by jasode 7y ago

solatic 7y ago

You're missing the larger change in society that advertising is adapting to. Few people have the attention span anymore to read all of the copy in BMW's old ads. Ad agencies could hire Hemingway himself, it wouldn't make any difference. People look at the picture, the headline, and move on. So-called brand advertising (at least, print brand advertising) serves as an admission on the part of marketers that, if they can't fit the whole AIDA model into a single ad anymore, they can at least try to push Awareness as much as possible. Doesn't mean that brand advertising is particularly effective.

uryga 7y ago
> Few people have the attention span anymore to read all of the copy in BMW's old ads or could it be that everything is so oversaturated with ads that spending two minutes voluntarily reading fluffy ad copy just doesn't seem like a great use of time, even if it's well written? attention span is its own problem, but connecting the two like this seems... odd. --- EDIT, had more thoughts on this i mean, i like the old VW Beetle ads. they're charming and clever and i enjoy reading them. but that's because the element of "trying to get me to buy something" isn't relevant anymore, i'm experiencing the (long-dead) ad willingly. but if the ad is a normal ad i see in a magazine... no way i'm giving it my undivided attention for two minutes just so it can manipulate me into liking X
- jonfw 7y ago
  I agree, there is still plenty of money invested in product placements in long form content, or sponsored 'review' articles. It's not so much that they don't write copy, it's that they try to avoid telling you that it's copy
new2628 7y ago
Hemingway is kind of a bad example here because he writes short and to the point.
- jotm 7y ago
  So, no matter how short he could write it, it won't beat a meme-like image
  - zaat 7y ago
    For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
dfxm12 7y ago
Few people have the attention span anymore to read all of the copy in BMW's old ads. Few brand owners or ad agencies also want to produce an ad that doesn't play globally. It's harder for things to get lost in (literal) translation when there are fewer words to translate. It's cheaper too!
cosmodisk 7y ago
Disagree. MI5 used to run full page,text only ads without even mentioning their org in the text.Those who needed to understand understood the gist of it. Jack Daniels text ads in London underground stations have more text than the other 50 stacked together. It's different,it attracts and it somehow works.

vishnugupta 7y ago

I’d be curious to know the author’s take on Apple’s Think Different campaign/commercial

silvestrov 7y ago

> is deliberately not supposed to convey concrete information > a deliberate and calculated emotional effect. When there is no concrete information the emotional effect for me is to close the video. All this "aspirational" puts me off and I'll think "only vapid and empty people like this".

Veen 7y ago
Then you are not the target audience. BMW positions itself as a luxury brand. Aspiration is key to its success. If you consider aspiration and luxury "vapid and empty" you aren't who BMW is trying to connect with in this ad.
- silvestrov 7y ago
  I buy primarily luxury brands, I just don't see "aspirational" and luxury being equivalent. High quality luxus items have a quality of their own which has nothing to do with aspirational aspects.
  - scandox 7y ago
    From the luxury items RFC: Luxury items MAY be high quality but they MUST be aspirational.
  - tadhgds 7y ago
    You might ask yourself if the luxury brands you buy are actually as high quality as you think. Do you survey the items for signs of superior quality? It's not a very easy thing to do if your not educated in the matter. I'm not suggesting you are wrong in your thoughts or beliefs, but you might discover that some products are not evidently higher quality and that the assumption of quality came about as a result of its association with the idea of of luxury and aspiration. for example, clothing construction at the higher levels is not exactly easy to judge. I don't know anything about stitching patterns or common fail points, but if Ralph Lauren advertise in a way that suggests that the people who wear their clothes are also the people who wear Rolex and drive Mercedes, people will make that connection. Even if you think immune to this stuff, you aren't. If you think you could be classified into any particular social group, you are probably riddled with these kind of beliefs. I think it takes a prolonged and deliberate effort to avoid the tricks of advertising

rypskar 7y ago

I think it also is about not understanding the difference in the media it could be used in. The video is of the type you could see as an ad on YouTube or before a movie at the cinema, this video is one of the few I might watch without skipping as soon as possible (but should have been an E21 not an E30 to make it better). The longer print ads with more information I could have read if they where in one of the car magazines I read.

george_morgan 7y ago

You should probably check the authors resume: https://georgetannenbaum.com/resume/ https://georgetannenbaum.com/resume/ He certainly understands the concept of brand and product advertising.

Tepix 7y ago

I'm in the target audience for this new BMW model as well and found the ad to be unappealing.

asdff 7y ago

This is why to this day you see these wild perfume ads, with sexy people fondling eachother and not much of anything happening really. No, these companies are not burning piles of ad money every year they put out an ad like this, this stuff actually works believe it or not. Otherwise that cash would not be spent.