AD WATCH: A Jack Morton Worldwide digital associate creative director most/least favourite ads

AD WATCH features marketing industry figures providing their opinions on what they think is some of the most inspiring and disappointing work they've seen. As long as it's not their own!

In this edition:

Venus Tse

Digital associate creative director

Jack Morton Worldwide

HOT: Netflix: The Spoiler Billboard

It’s safe to say that everyone hates spoilers to their favourite shows. It’s one of those experiences that can ruin friendships and ignite heated arguments. This led to the brilliant idea of Netflix’s spoiler billboards. Launched during the lockdown period, the campaign featured spoilers for Netflix original shows including Money Heist, Narcos, Love is Blind and Stranger Things. The idea aimed to curb the spread of COVID-19 by using the threat of spoilers to stop millennials from being tempted to socialise and encouraging them to binge on Netflix instead. Simply put: You spoil us all with the spread of COVID-19, we’ll spoil your favourite Netflix show.

What I love about the campaign is how a simple and clever idea, derived from people’s innate curiosity and desire to see, hear, or figure out plot points for themselves, can create such juxtaposing emotions –to go out with the risk of seeing these billboards or stay home and watch it for themselves?

The idea came from creative duo – Brave, two friends who both attended Miami Ad School in Germany. Even though the campaign never made it live, it became one of the most talked-about globally.

NOT: German Supermarket Edeka’s Gender Stereotype Ad

Diversity and inclusion is a topic close to my heart and gender stereotyping is something I feel strongly about. But one struck me (not in a good way) and made me rethink the way I look at gender stereotype in ads.

A German supermarket created a Mother’s Day ad titled “We say thank you.” Instead of showing how amazing mothers are, it showed a series of black and white vignettes of incompetent fathers making a series of mistakes. Throughout the ad, loving fathers tried their best but just couldn’t get things right. We saw a young girl being awkwardly dangled in a park as she urinates and a father forgetting the lid as he blends up baby food.

Throughout the scenes, children can be heard thanking their mothers for all the love, support and care. It finishes with the punchline: “Mum, thank you for not being dad” and an image of a mother caring for her daughter while the father chows down a bag of chips.

Needless to say, the ad elicited a huge response from the community. Feminist groups also heavily criticised the ad for further dividing and intensifying the fight between sexes.

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