The Recycling of Advertising

There is nothing worse than when a company uses another, usually old, ad campaign or tagline in their ads. This happens when companies are so devoid of originality or creativity that they use an old chestnut such as “got” as in “got milk?” or some derivation of “Just do it”. The lamest one I have heard recently was someone referring to their organization as “Not Your Father’s…” Type this tired slogan into Google and you get 371,000 mentions.   In fact, on the first page of search results I see references to “Not your father’s Talmud” and “Not your father’s sex shop”.  That combo would have made hebrew school more interesting, but I digress.

I wonder when people use this phrase if they realize that it was one of the most famous flops in adverting history. It worked so well for Oldsmobile that the brand no longer exists. When a company says “It’s not your father’s…” about their product it reinforces in a customer’s mind that the product or service is probably out of date and heading towards oblivion. When I hear it, all I can see is a 55 year old guy wearing a rug and Member’s Only jacket in Corvette with a 28 year old.  Not only is he not fooling anyone, but he looks ridiculous.  Is this you want for your brand? Don’t take the easy way out, you need to create a brand proposition that is unique and speaks to customers and prospects. 

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