Have you ever viewed a commercial or print advertisement that completely changed your opinion of a brand? One of Gap Inc.’s clothing retail stores, Old Navy, launched several of a series of commercials in 2009 that ran through 2011 entitled “The SuperModelquins” and the advertisements, from the dialogue to the presentation, were utterly intolerable.
Each and every time I heard the beginning of the commercial begin to play on my television, I immediately changed the channel and felt like writing Old Navy’s branding and marketing department an email. How did they get it so wrong? My disgust for the commercials reached the point that, although I wasn’t one of Old Navy’s most loyal customers prior to this advertising campaign, I refused to step foot in an Old Navy store or purchase merchandise from the brand. Old Navy no longer represented anything I was interested in as a brand, as I associate the name with an obnoxious, corny and juvenile commercial. I felt as though Old Navy misunderstood its customers causing a loss of my attention and patience, which was most likely a national phenomenon.
Although there are many factors to consider based on my eventual disinterest of Old Navy as a brand due to their “The SuperModelquins” commercial series, such as the commercial’s target audience and my interest in the brand prior to viewing this commercial, there is something to be said for taste. If you’ve never seen “The SuperModelquins” commercial series, you can view them here and form your own opinion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8t390QBbog
Have you had a similar unpleasant experience with an advertisement that changed your judgment of a brand? I’d love to hear about it.
I actually feel that I don’t remember the commercials I dislike as much as I remember the commercials that I like. For example, I remember a commercial that ran when I first moved to Tallahassee over three years ago, it was about stormwater runoff and it had rubber ducks fill the entire city if the problem wasn’t controlled (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm0C64idfz8). It made me go to their website and I still remember it because I liked it so much. If I’d disliked it I probably would’ve forgotten about it by now.