The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

A special day because of a birthday and an anniversary.

Not mine, but people who are important to me …

I had written a long post to them that went on a tangent to talk about investing in your own relevance.

That however young you are today, you’ll become an old fuck one day.

But I couldn’t wrap it up so I have left it for another day … instead, I am writing a post about the importance of your relationships.

Have a look at this …

At first glance, what do you see?

A Lego ad campaign?

Yeah … me too.

But then, when you look again, there’s that weird-as-fuck headline.

“Super Sweet And Fake Tasting”

What the absolute fuck? Has Lego gone rogue and decided to make social commentary on their own product?

Well obviously they haven’t … it’s simply an alcohol ad that has been stuck on the end of those 3 posters that – because of the colours of the poster frames – looks like it’s all part of the same campaign.

Now on one hand it’s funny. But I wouldn’t be laughing if I was the Lego client.

Putting aside their choice of headline colour – with the B&W image – makes it look like a Sainsbury’s ad [albeit Sainsbury’s aren’t in NZ], I’d be VERY disappointed the media team and/or the billboard company did not see the problematic nature of this linkage.

I mean, it’s pretty obvious.

Lego … kids, wholesome, creative. Alcohol … errrrm, less so.

Look, I get we all make mistakes, but what this says to me is that no one asked – or cared to ask – the right questions.

The client.
The media agency.
The billboard company.

Fuck, the only one who gets off here is the creative company, because they’d be as pissed off as the client.

Of course I’m not really surprised this has happened because in the quest for the lowest price possible, there seems to be more focus on having a programatic, optimised and systemised system and process than actually giving a fuck about your brands contexts, craft and associations.

It blows my mind how few clients care about ‘placement’.

They’ll argue till they’re blue in the face over the size of their logo, but rarely go into depth about the placement and contexts of where they appear.

And yet many clients think media agencies are professional and creative are the children.

Now of course there’s some amazing media agencies out there … agencies who think in terms of communication rather than media.

But the market has become so fixated on price, they’re forgetting – or not valuing – one vital element about brand building.

It’s not just about who you are, it’s about the company that you keep.

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PS: If anyone from Lego reads this, this post is because I love you. And you know this because I told you that when you invited me to talk at your global conference thing. Plus you’ve been very good and kind to me – and Otis – over the years. But the fact is, despite this being an isolated incident, you deserve better than this. You should demand better than this. So hold people to standards, not just price points and please don’t ask for any of the freebies you’ve sent me to be returned. Please!!!