A CLIMBER'S GUIDE

“If You're Safe, You're Out”
04/08/2008

Back on March 5th the Climber's guide entitled "What's the Score" promised an update on the effectiveness of the ever entertaining and always controversial, Heritage Truckin' campaign.

The Score for Month Two (March) Truck Sales:
-Complaints were at an all time high - up about 800%
-F-Series trucks up 11%
-Toyota trucks up 50%

Now March is usually up over February, but in today's economy with gas prices what they are, to be up over the previous month and over March of 07 as well, is a big win. To put it in perspective, as a group, March of 08 was Heritage's 3rd biggest truck month in over 15 months.

The point is it is not necessarily a bad thing to air an ad that makes people complain. In fact, in today's over-communicated world, playing it safe in order to avoid complaints or to avoid offending someone is pretty much a recipe for a limp campaign that fails to move a market. It's not that it has to be offensive but it does have to be "different" -and "different" always makes people squeamish. It comes down to taking chances, and taking chances is difficult in a down market because it leaves you open as the target for blame when things slow down.

Highbrow advertising circles and corporate bureaucracies alike strive for a seamless brand that's fully integrated because it looks nice and offends no one. One complaint and the campaign is ditched. I would have liked to see the highbrows field the 100 plus complaints we've fielded over this Truckin' campaign. Most would simply backpedal and kill the campaign as soon as a complaint was registered.

Why don't we pull it? Because truck is just a word, it's not offensive towards and race, religion or gender, the ad has a very sharp point, and consequently, it works! Just like people, the most interesting ads, if not brands, are those that are unpredictable and surprisingly engaging. Fully coordinated and seamlessly integrated people are boring and uninteresting. Impact is a result of surprise. Comedians and sitcoms make their living with it. Strip every movie, TV show or comedian of potentially offensive content and you kill what makes them successful. Make your ads as unpredictable as possible and people just may find them interesting enough to pay attention. Don't listen to your business associates, your neighbors or your jealous competitors because they won't approve of anything that's not predictable - and predictability kills advertising - in most cases. When you step it up and inject your advertising with enthusiasm, energy and fresh ideas, you must prepare for complaints and negative feedback from those that are offended.

One complainer said, "Any good comedian knows that when you don't have any real talent you resort to off-color jokes to get a laugh"
I'm not sure who this gentleman's favorite comedians are, though I'm sure George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and every other great comedian may take issue with this.

*See George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words bit for details: http://www.erenkrantz.com/Humor/SevenDirtyWords.shtml

In the words of the immortal Roy H. Williams, "Your ads ability to attract customers cannot exceed it's potential to repel others."
We're with Roy, while most other ads are not designed to work but rather, not to offend.

So please remember that when it comes to scoring more runs at the end of the game - if you're safe-you're out.

Keep climbing,

Jake

P.S. Attached is a recent ad that we did which Comcast refused to air on ESPN because they find it--objectionable? Is this overreacting?

"The Mitchell Report"

	Climb With Passion
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