Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Honest advertising stands out



"Text messaging while diving prevents you from seeing what really matters". This was shortlisted for a Clio award. Found via adpunch

A few bloggers have commented (rightly) on the boldness + honesty of a mobile phone company asking people not to text. This is clever stuff and is a lovely example of getting cut-through by expressing a viewpoint that is not expected. You can't argue with their logic and is worth doing, as I doubt that they would really lose any significant revenue from this.

Of course, this is not the first time Orange have done this. They took a similar position before with their New York City Blackout ad - one of my all-time favourite tv ads.

You can see it here at 'Sometimes things need to switch off, for people to switch on'. Let me know what you think.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul,

That is a great ad. It's a hard message to get across isnt it, because people have been doing it for so long they dont think it is a bad or dangerous thing.

The whole texting when driving thing reminds me of the images from the 1970's when RTE did on the street interviews with people in their cars talking to them about the new law where they had to wear their seat belt when driving...people werent happy! Now you wouldnt think of getting into your car without putting a seat belt on.

Love the switch off ad too...very good.

Paul Dervan said...

thanks Conor. yes, it's good stuff alright.

Teresa Halminton said...

Great ad. I'm freaking out when seeing people texting while driving or walking.
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