Keep walking

September 5, 2006

Anything can be used in advertising. Everything is fair game. But when does it go too far? When do you stand back and say, “Boy, I know this idea is clever that will garner attention, but it’s really in poor taste. I’d better lay off.”

More specifically, can a war-torn area be used as fodder for the promotion of an already famous whisky?

We could ask Leo Burnett/BBH, the agency partnership that brought this Johnny Walker campaign to Beirut. The Johnny Walker man, playing off of the successful “Keep Walking” campaign, casually walks over a broken bridge, showing the determination and stick-to-it-ness that the popular whisky apparently brings to the table. The complaint is that the situation in Beirut – a city that’s been ravaged by war and has its own share of broken bridges littering the area – is being lightened. It’s somehow cheapened.

There are two camps in this. One group finds the ad reprehensible, while the other considers it light-hearted fun. Adverb’s Mack Simpson takes the “reprehensible” side:

Despite a Leo Burnett Chief Creative Officer’s assurances that the outdoor work was intended to “lift morale” in Lebanon (though to “raise spirits” would have been more accurate I think), I can’t help but feel like I need to bathe. Especially when, a few paragraphs later, the same CCO gives us a peek behind the curtain, saying that, “the attention that the campaign had generated on the Internet proved its cost-effectiveness.”

Personally, I’m split between both groups. I think that while it’s a little garish, it’s also a very clever idea that casts a little light on a sensitive subject. Many Americans have no clue of the extent that Beirut is damaged, torn apart. So this ad is informing, causing those who trip over it on the Internet to do a little research for understanding’s sake.

At the same time, there’s little cause to make war (or it’s effects) into a marketing strategy. I understand the money side of this can turn a few stomachs. No one should profit from a war. Informing the public isn’t the intent of this campaign, but it’s welcome from the P.R. department, I’m sure.

What’s happening here? Is this ad selling whisky by exploiting destruction? Or is it informing an otherwise out of touch public and, oh by the way, selling booze?

Is this a company taking advantage of a horrible situation? Or is this just a brilliant marketing idea?

(from Adverb)

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Criticism

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