Yesterday, I copped to liking a print ad for Kool-Aid because it deftly combined a simple childhood insight with fun, spirited art direction. Ads like that may not win big awards, but they help all of us feel better about our daily toil.

Then there are ads like this. Ads with national print buys that ostensibly demonstrate how the managers of the brand want their product to be portrayed. After looking at this embarrassment, I’d say management needs a reset. And the creatives need to acquire a sense of shame.

What’s particularly remarkable about this bit of offal is how it splits into three largely equivalent and entirely unrelated sections: the sophomoric innuendo of the top third, the dog’s breakfast of unanchored facts in the middle, and the coupon at the bottom for anyone whose desperate need for saving a buck on a sleep remedy outweighs their personal standards.

Beyond being a hot mess of badness, it makes no sense.  The ad starts with the pay-per-view couple up top and their winky speech bubbles about when they ‘need it.’  What?  Doesn’t the suggestion of a desire to get busy mean they wouldn’t want to sleep? At least, not ‘now’ as Mr. Action Jammies suggests.

I like this business. I like most of the people in it. But this kind of thing fuels professional self-loathing. Ick.

.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

.