emotional advertising

a good ad has the ability to make you feel something, either empathy or sympathy, happy or sad, intrigued or maybe even repulsed.

a recent example that i have seen was the video ads for the charity barnardo's. while they obviously have technical merits being beautifully shot videos which work really well on tv and online in full-screen, their impact is purely down to their message that you have the power to break the cycle, to really listen to what children are saying and to affect the outcome of their lives.

after watching the ads i felt drained, sad, angry and a frustrated. drained because watching the ads takes an emotional commitment, sad due to the number of lives which are doubtless affected by the mal-treatment of the kids, angry that more wasn't being done to break the cycle and frustrated that the only thing that i can do is to click and donate but when the campaign ends that will be the measure of its success.

the last ad that made me cry was one for kleenex in which a little kid runs around the town to bring some tissues to his grandmother who was cutting an onion, was this a great ad? probably not but it hit me at the right time and i always remember it when i buy tissues. every man and his dog tries to be funny in his ad, maybe the true measure of creativity should be - how many people will cry.