Chicago Sun Times ad columnist Lewis Lazare doesn’t care for the new Sears campaign from Young & Rubicam/Chicago.
It’s obvious to us hedge fund guru Eddie Lampert and company still haven’t a clue where Sears is headed. Why do we say this? Because the campaign’s new tag line — “Sears: Where It Begins” — is so hopelessly weak and non-specific. It’s a collection of words that say absolutely nothing, primarily because the “it” meaninglessly hangs there, leaving us feeling frustrated as we wonder what “it” all means.
What’s the big deal with a weak tag, you might wonder. Here is Lazare’s read:
For us the tag line almost always says it all. Of course, some so-called experts in the advertising industry will argue the familiar advertising tag is but another outdated fixture in a rapidly evolving ad industry where “hip” is always happening in some cutesy online video or in television product placements, and all manner of unexpected guerrilla marketing tactics.
I don’t know about you, but I find comedy in Lazare’s scathing indictments.
I love it how he implies that the best forward-thinking talent advertising has to offer was somehow complicit in making a campaign he doesn’t like.
meant to add-
Not sure why Lazare’s so quick to blame an entire industry for what just looks like the standard crap that clients force agencies to do now and then.
Clients “force” agencies to produce crap? That’s more absurd than Lazare’s comment, and Sears tagline.
You know I’m on your side Tom, but in this case I must say agency execs operating from a place of fear do things everyday they would not otherwise do, simply because it placates an important stakeholder on the client side. Sad but true.
“Force” may be too strong a verb, but I’m pretty sure the agency people caugfht in these traps feel forced (to crap out inferior work).