AdFail: Lord Vader
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Category: Welt | Tags: adfail, Advertising, branding, marketing, Star Wars, Vader, Welt Branding 5 comments »
August 25th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Fail, only because it took me a while to make the connection they were going for. I knew they were referring to Anakin, and I knew that Darth Vader was Anakin, but the connection just wasn’t there right away. Once I thought about it, I had a chuckle but there wasn’t that instant recognition that is needed for this type of advertisement.
Maybe if they could have used one of the Anakin/Vader mashup images, like this one, it would have worked better.
(This is all ignoring the fact that Anakin’s move to the dark side had nothing to do with his name, and the movies they are advertising make my soul hurt.)
August 25th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Agreed. When an ad is so clever that it isn’t discernible in a five second glance,it fails as an ad. Not only that, but I consider myself an avid fan, so the majority of people wouldn’t get that in a 30 second glance. They should definitely have used the image you linked there.
October 20th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
BS, not tryna be Mr. Cool Guy but I got it off the bat, 2 seconds of processing tops, and I’m a low-moderate Star Wars fan. Haven’t even seen all of episode 3 yet. If after 30 seconds you still don’t get it, well my friend you are just not a Star Wars person, and won’t be getting it, this ad therefore not being targeted at you.
I also don’t agree that ads that make you think are not effective as ads; A sign that just says “coke” or a display of obvious humor are seen then forgotten, but ones that you see and get a few seconds later are much more likely to stick with you.
October 21st, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Dizzy,
Advertising and messaging are simply functions of time and attention. If it takes more time than a glance, you had better hope that the traffic pattern drags the person past it several times, and people learn to ignore things pretty quickly, so the ad needs to be refreshed in some way (movement?) or even if they pass it every day, you’ll fail to capture them with the messaging. All the research shows that people aren’t that reflective in our current, highly cluttered advertising environs.
Professionals would agree with Steve…
October 21st, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Being a blawger is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.