And so the RiFivers come under some debate (again) for awarding this month's award to an effort consisting of a pun which, at least the judges had the grace to concede, outdates even the chesspiece as an industry institution.
It's not this MPU is bad. In fact, it's almost a guilty pleasure, being badness done in a reasonably good, proficient way. But will we ever recognise that puns are not - that's not - the epitome of creativity?
I suspect the problem is that our HR clients, who aren't trained in marketing, let alone advertising, fall foul of the common misconception that puns make good ads. And why should we attempt to dissuade them, when they're paying our mortgages?
Generally speaking, the purpose of a headline is to draw the attention of a reader (or viewer) likely to be interested in that ad's proposition or the advertising organisation's values. Sometimes it's possible to do this with a pun. Clearly, most of the time it isn't.
Worst puns #1: A director of an agency I worked for wrote an ad recruiting software engineers into UAE. The visual was a cartoon camel with a microphone. The headline was 'Dubai-dubai-doo.' Looking back, that was probably the day I should have shot myself.
Anyway, Oliver Scott from Blackbridge send me a link to the video above yesterday after a discussion which involved fish puns. After this, there's nothing more to be said on the subject. Perhaps we should play it to all new entrants to rec ad creative departments, just to knock the filthy habit once and for all out of the punorama of employer marketing creativity.
See what I did there?
Having gone out for a few beers with the culprits responsible, sorry, company responsible for the MPU, I can confirm it is actually part of a campaign.
The next advert alerts graduates to the fact that they'll get nothing wooly from KPMG. I'll leave you to guess what animal is missing this time. Large groan.
Posted by: Noel Thomas | November 26, 2009 at 01:25 PM