Last week, Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for governor of Ohio, launched a $4 million ad campaign putting his opponent’s own mother on TV to tell voters: don’t vote for my daughter. She’s a liar. Keep her out of office.
Oooof. Brutal.
What makes this extra cringy: Amy Acton, Vivek’s opponent, says she hasn’t seen her mother since 1978. That’s the year her stepfather was charged with raping her from the time she was 9 years old (police and court records back that up). Acton says her mother stayed with him. She was removed from that home at 12.
I was asked, “Do you think that was a good ad?”
Well, since you asked…
Before I comment on THAT ad, let me say this: I’m absolutely PRO marketing and advertising that delivers a big emotional impact. Messages that stand out, get people talking and land HARD. I believe all marketing and advertising is ultimately measured by the results it delivers, not by how disturbing, funny or memorable it is or whether people like it.
Take the iconic ASPCA ad that debuted in 2007. I’m sure you remember it. It showed starving dogs, shivering, chained up and staring at you with such hopelessness your heart shattered. Worse? It was all set to Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel.” It’s an emotional live grenade, served up cold.
People hated it and lunged for the remote the first time they saw it. Many demanded it be taken off the air.
But by the end of 2008, the New York Times reported it had pulled in more than $30 million, the most successful fundraising campaign in the ASPCA’s history. Nonprofit people started calling it simply “The Ad.” Even Sarah can’t watch it. She told Rolling Stone it’s painful, then gave the best one-line marketing review I’ve ever heard: “It worked like a hot damn.”
That ad is disturbing as hell because animal cruelty IS disturbing. It didn’t invent a thing. It showed the truth, aimed it straight at your heart and asked you to do something about it.
That’s the key: EMOTION. People are moved to buy, vote and react based on how they FEEL. Sadly, most MSP marketing has the emotional range of a spreadsheet, which is why it gets ignored (see last week’s Rant).
But there IS a line you shouldn’t step on…or over.
And that line isn’t universal. It depends on your audience. In every group, there are “sacred cows” you don’t slaughter, bears you NEVER poke, “jokes” you never make and decisions, actions and comments that BREAK TRUST.
If you don’t know your audience, or you’re stupid about this, your marketing will UNSELL people.
As an example, last week an MSP posted an AI-generated video of the priest being killed by a falling cross during a live Mass, with Donald Trump swapped in as the priest – and didn’t even cut away before the cross landed. Now, maybe 100% of his target audience, employees and partners are such Trump haters that the post earned him more loyalty. Maybe none of them found the real event horrific, and all of them thought it was fair game for parody. I doubt it, but that’s the only logic I can find for posting it.
If that’s NOT the case, it’s one of the dumbest things you could put online as the leader of a company whose people depend on you for professionalism and good judgment.
In the case of Vivek’s ad, I believe he crossed a line he should not have crossed, especially given the history of childhood abuse. That is my personal opinion – and I like Vivek. But I don’t subscribe to the “anything for a win” school.
In business, trashing a competitor is NOT smart – especially if you use someone else’s tragedy to your advantage. Prospects aren’t stupid. When you badmouth the other guy, they don’t think less of HIM. They think less of YOU.
Point out real gaps? Absolutely. Bring proof, case studies and response times. Ask the questions that make a prospect realize their current provider has been asleep at the wheel for three years. That’s not a low blow. That’s selling. But if you need to vilify the other person to elevate yourself, you’re revealing a character flaw as well as the weakness in your offer.
As I see it, the difference between the ASPCA ad and the Ohio ad isn’t how uncomfortable they make you. It’s WHO gets hurt. One used a hard truth to protect the helpless. The other used a woman’s worst childhood memory as ammunition to win a political race.
A loss with your integrity intact is still a win on the only scoreboard of life. A win you got by stepping on somebody’s throat follows you forever.
So swing hard. Be outrageous. Be disturbing. Tap every emotional button you’ve got. Try HARD to succeed. Just never be the guy willing to run over his own grandmother to eke out a win.
Be ruthless with your marketing. Never with your morals.