April 6, 2011
Why “Toning it Down” is Usually a Bad Idea.
By Ted Page, Captains of Industry
Ad agencies like mine are tasked by clients to come up with brilliant work that stands out in a crowd, but once in a while the corporate higher-ups (while they SAY they like outstanding creative) want work “toned down a bit” so it doesn’t take any risks. This is a recipe for making campaigns bland and invisible. I remember doing ads for AT&T and Lufthansa when I was a copywriter at McCann-Erickson, and at least half of them were met with 1) a great initial response from my boss along the lines of “This is fantastic!” 2) a period where the ad was shown around the agency, going up several layers of management, followed by “I like it personally, but somebody might be offended. Just tone it down.”
Try as I might, I could never find the elusive “somebody.” I don’t think “somebody” actually exists. It’s just a way for managers to cover their assets and not take the risks they really aught to be taking in order to get the client noticed. Of course, staying within the boundaries of what’s right for the brand is very important. But too many companies opt for an ultra-safe route just because they are a little nervous about a concept, and not because the campaign strays form the brand. You probably can’t remember a campaign that succumbed to the “tone it down” syndrome, simply because “safe” campaigns are not memorable. Most advertising falls into this category – and that’s a shame. How strongly do I feel about this? Check out the video above.
David Cutler
That’s one lucky kid… that (handsome) doctor has saved it from a an exciting life of too much attention and success! This video is also an example of how easy it is to create new content and test it’s effectiveness. Nice job – we look forward to the next even LESS safe one.
David Meerman Scott
Nice work on this one. I’ll tweet.
Ann Handley
Love it! And: Absolutely. I think the other way companies tend to “tone is down” is in the language they use, in their marketing or on their web sites and in how they TALK: meaningless words and phrases that are sometimes mistaken for the so-called Language of Business. To often companies produce pablum that makes them sound like everyone else, rather than something that genuinely reflects who they are, as a brand, and what makes them unique. So we end up with stuff like “end-to-end solutions” and “incentivizing” and “at the end of the day” and the like….
Just. Don’t.
(But of course you guys know this better than anyone!)
Ted Page
Thank you David and David (we actually have a filter on our blog that only allows people named David to comment). I really appreciate the feedback and your help in spreading the word on our videos!
Ted