By Tom Ollerton, Founder of Automated Creative.
‘Advertisers Watching Ads’ is a weekly video series where brands review other brand’s ads and share what makes them great, or not.
In this week’s episode we hear Under Armour’s SVP of Consumer Engagement, Jim Mollica’s views on McDonald’s France’s latest ad. Jim shares his opinions on whether it’s a beautiful cinematic experience or “a poster child of why advertising needs to be reinvented.”
Jim concedes the ad is “strikingly beautiful” as well as “cinematic, expansive and alluring” but he also questioned if he saw this ad “in the wild” would he have watched it all the way through?
Jim feels that this ad could be an “analogy for our times” with the emotional state of children feeling isolated and the boundaries that are preventing them from experiencing the world as they normally would. Jim questions if this is a strong enough commitment to child education or were they “crossing off their list” a corporate social responsibility message?
Jim suggests there are more productive ways for the brand to create marketing messages around their commitment to children’s education. He feels the best way to do that is by actually doing real work in schools and deprived areas as opposed to giving away books with fast food.
Jim’s takeaway for advertisers is to “focus on your impact” and make a commitment to a cause and spend the money on that, as opposed to spending the money with big media networks.
Come back next week for the next episode of Advertisers Watching Ads.
Watch this week’s episode here:
