Hey everyone, this is Daily Ad breakdown #13. In this series we discuss how Ads are structured, how to get more conversions, write your ads efficiently, and of course, write The Best Ads.
Here we have a Tommy Hilfiger Ad, and this is going to be a fun one!
A Mistake That Even Big Brands Make In Advertising
For some context, this is the Hangman Ad by Tommy Hilfiger in 1986, it was placed on billboards in Time Square. Now this ad was regarded as the Ad that put the brand on the map!
Now I’m not here to tell the story, but to shed some light on what is blatantly obvious. This Ad did nothing. I see all the praise about it being genius and creative, but all I see is that the person who made the ad had zero consideration for the viewer.
First of all, it is a billboard. Secondly, it is New York. Lastly, the ad requires you to think and look at it for a few seconds to understand it. This combination means that the average person walking by would need to look up while walking, fill in the blanks while walking, and try to read that paragraph of a guy talking about “soon enough, everyone will know this name.” and people called it genius?
A common point that I always see myself coming back to is that people always overcomplicate ads. The reader is never supposed to get confused when reading your ad, the reader should be able to understand what is going on in the ad even when they are half asleep. I doubt anyone who is half asleep will make it past the first section, let alone continue down into the next section without actually falling asleep.
Another point, this ad relies on the relevancy of other brands to make sense. They are promoting other brands with their advertising budget, especially because they put their own brand’s name at the bottom, which I will always think is an interesting choice. I won’t get into the subliminal perception when it comes to advertising, but putting your brand name on the bottom of 3 other brands in your ad is like a politician standing in front of empty store shelves when recording his campaign.
How Can You Learn From This?
The best thing you can learn from this ad is to not be complicated. Ads should always be straightforward, if it is not then the reader may get confused. I will always choose an ad that gets every reader to understand what is being promoted than an ad that only some readers understand but applaud the “creativity”.
Now imagine if any other business did this type of ad, it could be a restaurant or even an airport, this would never work. All the real genius ad structures can be replicated in every business model smoothly.
You need to be considerate about what your readers can see in the ad and how they perceive the ad (Hint: All readers should perceive the ad the same way).
Thank you for reading A Mistake That Even Big Brands Make In Advertising (Daily Ad Breakdown #13). Like if you enjoyed it! And Have an Amazing rest of your day!
Here is how the billboard looked from a pedestrian’s perspective:
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