“The magic is in the product… No matter how skillful you are, you can’t invent a product advantage that doesn’t exist. And if you do, and it’s just a gimmick, it’s going to fall apart anyway.” - Bill Bernbach

Yep. We're sooooo focused on the message. It's all about the message. PR. Advertising. Blogs. Websites. Quicktime mini-movies. Powerpoint presentations. Catalogs. Brochures. Direct marketing. Mailers. All of that pretty, engaging copywriting and design and context... That's all fine and good, but why is that a) most ads still aren't all that great, and b) for the most part, neither are the products?

Think most wireless phone providers. Think most fast food chains. Think most motion pictures.

Has hype replaced substance? Am I a dweeb for thinking it doesn't have to be this way?

Fellow Corante contributor Marc Babej's treat for us this week starts us off with a collection of quotations from Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy and Rosser Reeves about the true nature of advertising. Here's a taste:

“Getting a product known isn’t the answer. Getting it wanted is the answer. …be sure your advertising is saying something, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you’re saying it like it’s never been said before.”

(You know... we could stop right there. That one pretty-much said it all.)

“Today everybody is talking ‘Creativity,’ and, frankly, that’s got me worried. I fear lest we keep the good taste and lose the sell. I fear all the sins we may commit in the name of ‘Creativity.’ I fear that we may be entering an age of phonies.”

And we wouldn't want that, would we?

Again - because it's worth repeating: “The magic is in the product… No matter how skillful you are, you can’t invent a product advantage that doesn’t exist. And if you do, and it’s just a gimmick, it’s going to fall apart anyway.”

All three quotations are from Bill Bernbach.

Along the same lines, Tom Asacker puts Coca Cola Co.'s upcoming anti-Red Bull shock and awe Superbowl Day operation in perspective for us:

From AdAge - "The spot is part of Coke’s sponsorship of ABC’s pre-game Full Throttle Kick-Off Show, and throughout the segment teaser ads will air for the energy drink, along with its Vault hybrid energy soda, leading up to a 60-second spot for Full Throttle that caps the pre-kick advertising pod. In the commercial from Mother, New York, hoards of men shed the shackles of their everyday grocery shopping, car buffing and jogging to hop into whatever vehicle is handy and draft off of the alpha-maleness of a passing Full Throttle monster truck."

Note: When you observe image-based branding - as opposed to the enhancement and promotion of superior products, services and people - you're experiencing sameness, plain and simple.

Exactly.

Wait... hold on... Did someone really use the term "alpha-maleness" in conjunction with a tweak-soda ad? Oh, man.

Just so we're clear on this, there is absolutely nothing "alpha-male" about:

a) soda - I don't care if it has twice the sugar and caffeine of other soft drinks,
b) a bunch of guys chasing a truckload of soda, I don't care how big the truck is,
c) a copy of a copy of a copy of Red Bull,
d) guys who drink a copy of a copy of a copy of Red Bull, or
d) any product branded with all the tact and flair of a bunch of middle-aged guys pretending to be teenage boys.

"Alpha-juvenile", maybe. "Alpha-male", nope. Come on, Coke. Is this the best you can do? You used to be so good at this. What happened? (For a pretty decent answer, read what Brand New Day's David Kiley has to say about it.)

Don't get me wrong. I totally appreciate Coca-Cola, Inc's need to develop new drinks on a regular basis. I really do. I'm all for innovation, but... oh wait. This isn't about innovation. Never mind.

Point: There is absolutely nothing remarkable or original about either Full Throttle or Vault. All this is about is Coca-Cola, Inc. flexing its market-munching muscle with a protective "also-in" blitzkrieg. Maybe it's just me, but I'm kind of disappointed in the folks over at Coke. I expected better. Or maybe smarter. Or maybe more customer-focused. Or maybe a bit more inventive. I don't know.

You be the judges.

Check out the full piece on Tom's blog.

There's a lot of that going around. Also-in flops waiting to happen. Unremarkable products pretending to be something they aren't. Ill-conceived ad campaigns. Boring and forgettable advertainment. It's sad.

In sharp contrast, you have the NetFlix ads. The HP ads. The Samuel Adams ads. The ads announcing the Winter Olympic Games coverage. The products are great, the ads are great, and they stand head and shoulders above the rest. Period. Thankfully, they aren't alone, but they are still the minority.

So yeah, I really look forward to the showcase of Superbowl ads, but at the same time, I kind of dread it. Some of them are going to make me cringe. I know it. Let's hope that they'll be in the minority and that this year will bring us more good stuff than usual. Not just funny or quirky, but really great ads. The kind of ads that don't just generate buzz for themselves and the agencies that created them, but - more importantly - for the products and brands they serve.

In the end, it all has to be about the product - and the product has to be all about the customer. If you can remember that, if you can live it and incorporate it into your work as a creative or a marketer or a business strategist, then you've got it made. Your advertising can be funny or engaging or poetic or terrifying... It doesn't matter. As long as you have that relevant core to base it on, as long as you've found the beef and you can help your audience find it too, you can do anything you want: Inspire. Challenge. Invite. Educate. Entertain. Excite. That's the body and soul of great advertising.

Fact: On its best day, creative by itself is art. On its worst day, it's just hot air. Really expensive hot air. In order for any of this to work, for advertising to even be relevant, for marketing to yield results, you have to start with a great product. You have to start with something that will bring value to people's lives. That's where Ground-Zero Brandbuilding, begins. Hype is just hype. It isn't the kind of ground upon which you want to build your company's reputation. No matter how great your ad agency may be, no matter how cool and effective their work is, if you can't deliver on your promise, if you can't give your customers something they'll want to buy in the first place, you're screwed.

That's what you need to show them.

That's the beef.

Since I didn't incorporate a lot of links into this post, I'll leave you with a great little blog/website that features some of the most inventive advertising experiments from around the globe: Go check out MIT Advertising Lab and add it to your favorites. The posts are short but the coverage is simply brilliant. Very cool, provocative stuff on there.