Packaged goods advertising needs a kick in the pants. No one’s going to argue otherwise. However, I’m not sure what Unilever and WPP’s Mindshare Entertainment have wrought with this painfully derivative spot for Dove?
According to Ad Age, this Mad Men mirror for Dove is just the beginning. Unilever is planning to work six of its iconic brands–Dove, Breyers, Hellman’s, Klondike, Suave and Vaseline–into this newly poached campaign.
The vignettes feature Phil Smith and Tad Winter, a copywriter and art director working at fictional 1960s ad agency Smith Winter Mitchell, developing campaigns for the six Unilever brands. Much like Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Unilever’s fictional agency is meant to be a challenger to the hulking beasts of Madison Avenue.
Why they work there, and why this makes sense creatively, I have no idea.
This Is Strange
August 3, 2010 By
About David BurnI wrote my first ad for a political candidate when I was 17 years old. She won her race and I felt the seductive power of advertising for the first time. Today—after working for seven agencies in five states—I am head of brand strategy and creative at Bonehook in Portland, Oregon.
