BigShinyThing

The online travel company and their ad agency were reprimanded by the ASA and garnered a load of negative press for a Popbitchesque ‘quip’. According to the BBC:

Lastminute.com breached decency rules by mentioning sex offender Gary Glitter in an advert for children’s theatre tickets, the industry watchdog said. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the advert was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Showing two young boys, it stated: “Like Gary Glitter in a sweet shop, you too can have your pick of kiddy treats in London’s theatre world”.

The online firm apologised and said the advert had now been withdrawn.

A spokesman for the website said: “We aim to create advertising which makes us stand out. However, on this occasion we realise that there has been an error in our judgment.”

This type of scraping-the-bone humour may be standard fare for blogs and message boards but doesn’t work for mass market, mainstream brands. Markets might well be conversations, but you need to learn the vernacular appropriate to those conversations before jumping in with your marketing communications. Listen and learn, people!

In a nice sign o’ the times, the Financial Times article makes clear the difference between old and new marketing techniques. Cendant argues that it is investing in newspaper ads in an attempt to ‘bring brands to life’ and differentiate itself from its online rivals.

We’ve noted before how online retailers such as Lastminute and eBay have exploited offline media in an attempt to make their brands ‘huggier’ and more ‘real world’. It’s also a classic ploy to draw in any straggling technophobes out there. And we wonder how much of this is designed to placate digital immigrants who still draw a line between the online and offline worlds, unlike their kids — already digital natives who see everything glommed together.

Randy Wagner, chief marketing operating officer of Cedant draws a distinction between the ‘art and science’ of traditional and online advertising — aligning online with measurable impact and offline with emotional reach. Now all traditional marketers have to do is convince everybody else… The Wall Street Journal reported just this week: “Newspapers are losing their single biggest category of classified advertising: auto ads. Revenue from car classifieds has been falling for seven straight quarters, and analysts are beginning to wonder if the drop-off is permanent.”