George Parker is one of the original Madison Avenue advertising legends, immortalised in the early sixties cool of the popular TV series Mad Men and has become the most acerbic commentator on the advertising world, through his book 'Confessions of a Mad Man' and blog, 'AdScam'.
We got Parker together with some other ad and brand experts, who operate in the commercial world, not the political one, to look at the 2014 election information campaign launched last week.
The video has been widely dismissed and the slogan, 'Act. React. Impact.' has not inspired either. but what do the experts think?
First of all, even these people who are constantly watching developments in the media, were, like all Europeans, unaware of the launch, so it was with some trepidation that they were shown the video and publicity material.
We acted and they reacted and it certainly made an impact.
But not in a good way.
“Unlike national tourism campaigns that merely try to influence foreigners to come to Europe, this travesty is supposed to energize the public within the EU to the point were they will actually go out and vote for something most of them regard as a giant ****,” says Parker.
“The video is a collection of splendid images that have no relationship to each other, let alone the poor ****ers forced to watch it,” he adds.
“I have no idea what it wants me to do after sitting through it.”
Parker's colleague, Ralf Zeigermann, who has worked throughout Europe in the advertising industry as a designer, author and brand developer, is equally baffled, “I don't get it. What's this ad about? About the EU? The Parliament? About us, the EU citizens? There's zero information in there, just a bunch of nice but random pictures.”
He continues, “This ad does nothing for me, it only shows various things we know about already. Why the ballet girl? Why the landfill? Is the EU parliament now magically making landfills disappear?”
The slogan isn't helping, “I don't get the slogan either. Who's supposed to "Act. React. Impact."? Are they talking about me as a European Citizen or are they talking about themselves?”
Zeigermann continues, “There's not a word about banks, about Greece, nothing about all the problems we have and their possible solutions.”
So what were they trying to do? “I think they tried to emulate the Apple advertising a bit, but what might work for a consumer brand doesn't necessarily work for a fragile union of different countries, who all have loads of problems.”
Zeigermann concludes, “This has got bugger all to do with an "information campaign about the 2014 European elections", because there's no information to be found. I'd rather have three 30 second ads giving actual information than this 1:30 ad where they try to get all emotional.”
Showing the background material distributed by the parliament didn't improve their impression.
Over to George Parker, whose acerbic tongue is matched by an extremely detailed knowledge about advertising since the 60s, “As for the article (and booklet), 'The power to decide what happens in Europe.' The visual was obviously lifted from a naked wrestling in mud, porn film, with the inscrutable caption, 'Take on the present and shape the future' being an ad for Viagra, or some other cure for erectile dysfunction product.”
but there was a use for the slogan, “After wading through reams of turgid copy, my first 'Act' would be to sit through every archived episode of Monty Python to see if I am missing some tautological nuances of language better understood by Spam eating Vikings.
“After being told that the European Parliament was ready to fight for the things I really care about, such as the optimum circumference of duck eggs throughout the EU, I wanted to 'React' by stabbing myself in the eyes with rusty kitting needles.
“But, as these would not meet the current EU regulations for 'Needles – Knitting – Rusty' I passed on that and moved on. Which left me to dwell on the “Impact” of what I had just read.
“Unfortunately, I had fallen asleep, so I had to pass on that also.”
Parker's conclusion, “In common with most government efforts at communication, it is execrable. As an example of trans-governmental communication, it is unforgivable.”
Was there anything positive Parker could say? “Have the girl in the mud wrestling shot report to my office immediately.”
This was probably not the best time to break the news that €5 million of the campaign was to be spent on social media.
Zeigermann was stunned. “Oh dear, this is ridiculous. Why don't they spend the money on billboards and perhaps a few informative ads? This is insane.”
But perhaps the experts could explain how you could spend €5 million on Facebook and Twitter, Zeigermann is baffled, “I have absolutely no idea.”
The acid test is that 'Act. React. Impact.' makes no more sense than 'React. Act. Impact.' or 'Impact. Act. React.'
Does it?
George Parker's weblog provides acerbic insider commentary on developments in advertising and occasional glances back to the 'golden era' of the Mad Men: http://www.adscam.typepad.com/
Ralf Zeigermann's portfolio is online: http://zeigermann.prosite.com
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