A (short) Rant about Crappy Advertising

Pardon me for a bit while I vent about a poor implementation of advertising I saw this past week. Hopefully, you can empathize with me and maybe even tell some similar stories yourself.

While heading home I was sitting behind another car at red light. As I patiently sat there, I noticed that the car in front of me had a car wrap on it featuring advertising for his company. From my view all I could see was his bumper and this is all that the back advertising said, “Avis … We Try Harder.” At first it was no big deal to me, but the longer I sat there and stared, the more it bugged me.

I’ve expressed my realization that as I learn more about design I become more critical of everything around me. This sentiment is also true with marketing and business in general. Here’s what upset me about this guy and his car wrap.

First, Avis isn’t that well known of a company to get by on simply brand name recognition alone. For those who’ve never heard of them, they are a car rental business. So if I didn’t know what Avis did, then knowing that they “try harder” doesn’t really matter to me. The advertising needed to briefly explain what business they were in.

Second, after giving this ordeal a bit of thought, I believe that the bumper portion on the car wrap is the most important place. Yes, you can put better graphics on the side where there is a nice smooth surface, but there’s one important thing about the back that the sides or front can’t get. The back side of a car gets someone’s undivided attention. In my case, I was sitting at a painfully long light and had nothing else to do but sit and stare in front of me. You can’t get that type of attention elsewhere. Someone might glance to the side and see the side panel advertising, but they aren’t forced to sit and read what’s there. A few seconds of their attention is all you get from them. The most effective advertising is the one that gets read, and re-read.

Last, because I am so outraged by this travesty of advertising, I am making an oath to never rent a car from Avis ever again. Ok, not really, but I felt like I needed a third reason. If you’ve got a better third reason, please add a comment with it.

The car wrap guy missed an opportunity to drive home a message to people that are and aren’t aware of the company. Instead of turning the 2 minutes of uninterrupted attention he got from me to explain what Avis does and why I should think of them when I need a car rental, all I get is a “We Try Harder”. And don’t get me started on why I feel that line in and of itself is so pathetic. We TRY, are you kidding me, is that all you have to tell me is that I should pick you because you TRY harder, p-a-lease …