Anyone who works in advertising knows this trick. It’s the ethically fuzzy practice of reverse engineering.
Here’s how it works:
A lot of agencies have boring clients that won’t publish award winning work. (Or mediocre teams who can’t produce it.) So the “creative” team, who would sell their mom for awards, will make spec ads and try to sell them- similar to what new kids do to crack into the industry. Sometimes an agency will even mandate this to make some awards noise to attract new biz.
And sometimes they “borrow” inspiration from a seemingly obscure corner of art or pop-culture. In this example, some photography originally done for a French soft-porn rag. They take the grain of the idea, or the whole fucking execution, stick a logo on it and try to sell it to a client. That’s why it’s reverse engineering.
Step 1: Get (borrow) cool idea.
Step 2: Apply idea to previously undetermined brand X.
Voila! Instant “podium wobbler”.
Case in point: “Lego for adults.”
But what’s missing? Well, other than even a hint of creativity, any chance that this ad would actually work. (Even if Lego for Adults actually existed). At best it does nothing. At worst it sprays a little smut over a brand that stands for imagination and kids toys. It’s a poignant example of what happens when reverse engineering starts to….reveal itself. It becomes an irrelevant piece of fluff without any kind of insight – for that you need to reverse, reverse engineer.
I’m not against getting inspiration wherever possible, but I am against lazy BS. Fortunately, lazy, derivative work doesn’t usually win awards.
Filed under: Hack Jobs, copywriting, creative , advertising, ethics, Lego, Reverse Engineering ads, scam ads
