I was watching the Letterman Show the other night with my dad, and Letterman brought to Herman Cain’s most recently advertisement. I may have never been more dumbfounded in my life. For those who have not seen it, it features Mark Block – Cain’s chief of staff- stars in the leading role. He discusses the campaign himself, and offers that Cain’s promises will bring a unity to the country and other wonderful things. The best piece of action is by the last 10 seconds of the 1 minute clip, Mark Block takes a drag from his cigarette, while looking directly at the camera. That image then transitions to Herman Cain smiling. Check it out:
As expected, people have gone crazy over the image of Block smoking on screen in such a big advertisement. It may just be part of the ideological trend Americans are on right now. What I mean is this- 40 years ago, majority of people smoked cigarettes and cigars on screen. Now today, with new information on the effects and image of smoking, very little is seen of it. It is almost kept as a personal secret. However, thousands have lashed out at the Cain campaign and criticized their strategy. I found a clip of Cain defending the ad, saying that they believe in “let Block be Block”, and capture the image of the true person that they are. He admits they didn’t expect such attention from the 1 minute advertisement. Check his response out:
The image of Block smoking in the end of the video has done no good for the campaign. If anything, it’s hurt it and brought to light just how little his team considers before advertizing Herman Cain. What’s funny is, I’ve already forgotten what Block said in the beginning of the commercial. All I remember is his cigarette. No, it doesn’t mean that they endorse smoking. But by presenting it in such a fashion, it gives the impression that the campaign does.
When it comes to ads, you don’t want your ad to cause someone’s mind to wander against what you are selling. For example, everything in the commercial needs to reflect what you are selling. Let’s face it; a “SLAPCHOP” is really exciting! And so is their spokesman. It’s a clear image of what you are selling and makes me believe that it is an exciting product. The Cain ad has caused people’s minds to wander about why that image is so inconsistent with anything Cain represents.
The first thing that came to my mind was that a tobacco company has given the campaign money and they need to represent their brand. My second impression was that they’re all incredibly inexperienced commercial managers.
Having an ad that starts with a testimonial on Cain’s strengths, and ending with cigarette smoking is like mixing Apples and Oranges.... and that just doesn’t work.
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