Back to the Basics: St John Ambulance, saving lives

Charities are constantly clamouring at you for a chance to promote their cause and amongst all this noise the message is lost in the clutter. There are always reasons to watch out for one of several diseases that could get to you, however St John Ambulance have put together a great video to remind you of the little things that could be fatal

The video shows the story of an ordinary man with a family who is diagnosed with cancer. He goes on to battle it and win. Only to choke to death. Emotional? Anti-climatic? but more importantly is the fact that his death could have been prevented by simple first aid. The shocking statistic being that over 140,000 people die from lack of first aid which is the same as cancer. The video serves as a reminder that that there simple basic things that can get us and which can easily be prevented through care and education.

A sobering and though provoking video and an emotive one.

Copycat advertising: Is it successful?

Copycat advertising takes a really popular concept..and well copies it.

A while back comparethemarket.com launched an amazingly successful campaign comparethemeerkat.com which is still running quite successfully today perhaps also because the meerkat's in all honesty are quite successful. 

So when I came across this ad by LesFurets.com I was slightly disappointed. Sure it's a cute little ad but it lacked originality in it being too similar to comparethemeerkats.com which is in the same product category as well.

But for those who recognize the similarity its a fantastic win for LesFurets. By piggybacking on an already successful campaign their customers would recognize the advantages of the product/service being advertised, with much less investment than their competitors. 

Gender cliches: Do they work?

The use of cliches is not uncommon in advertising, however I have to question the use of gender stereotyping.
In our current age, gender roles are blurring every day so does gender stereotyping work?

Harley - Davidson uses the concept of a Man's man for their bikes....but really? Are women not allowed to own a Harley? Harley Davidson started the bikers' culture where everyone was welcome but now this seems to be restricted to males? Not sure if that's the right impression you want to give out.

Brian Atwood launched their Spring/Summer collection with a remake of a classic Marilyn Monroe scene. While I love Marilyn and everything is so feminine I'm not sure if I can relate to stripping naked and jumping in a pool with my heels on. The ad is too overtly feminine in a very old concept of what a women is about.

The one interesting point however of gender based advertising is that it exists in extremes. They either embrace the concept of gender roles in today's society or go to extreme end of the spectrum, as above. I don't think many people can relate to either. While males may perhaps aspire to be everything manly, I personally do not relate to a Marilyn Monroe type advertisement and nor would I want to.