a must-read for anyone who still believes in production value and aesthetic advertising. Tim Leake is Senior Vice President at LA-based agency RPA.
With brands such as Honda, Intercontinental Hotels and Acura in their portfolio you wouldn’t expect this agency to try and convince is of the power of ‘ugly. Yet that’s exactly what their Senior Vice President travelled the ocean for.
‘Ugly Sells’ was arguably the most provocative and the most eloquent talk on the first day of Cannes Lions 2019.
“We often use different names for it”, says Tim. Like ‘authentic’, ‘real’ or ‘raw’. But what it boils down to, is just plain ‘ugly’. And ugly is good. Ugly sells. The internet doesn’t like pretty things. The Instagram aesthetic is all passed us now. Memes are ugly. Selfies are ugly. Chaz Smith’s hilarious low-fi and low-budget ad for Old Spice is ugly and gets almost 7 million views(!). The Universal Studio intro — where a little kid screams the famous movie intro at the top of his lungs, is very funny. And very, very ugly. It’s been watched over a million times. It is just one of countless examples of how dearly people love ugly these days.
The Guardian wrote that ugly, corny and hokey provoke interest on the net, more than any other content properties. And research shows that there is no positive correlation between production value and engagement by the audience. On the contrary: overproduced content leads audiences to disconnect.
Tim Leake: “There are several reasons for this passionate love for ugly. First of all it is a reaction to over-perfection.
We, the creatives, have been overdressing for the party for too long. Our ads look like overthought and overproduced … ads. And now it’s gotten boring. Another reason is that ugly tests well. It is not bland, so it stands out. For too long our industry has been celebrating craftsmanship, just for the heck of it. We are training audiences to skip ads. Style guides make brands look the same, everywhere.”
“It is time to redefine craftsmanship, to concentrate on more situational art-creating with an adaptable aesthetic instead of rigid art-direction. It is time to create ads and stories that don’t make people feel bad about themselves.
It is, in short, time for a more situational approach, where we use aesthetics only when they actually sell and we deploy ugly when that sells better. Recent campaigns by high-fashion brands like Gucci show this is perfectly possible. We can deploy both. Even within the same brand. Brands like Gucci, Denny’s, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or Old Spice don’t mind bringing down the Tirrany of the Style Guide. And yoùr clients won’t mind either. Why? Because ugly not only sells, it is also faster, easier and cheaper. And no client says no to that today…”
Here are some beautiful examples of how ugly sells:
https://www.elle.com/uk/beauty/a27621417/gucci-cruise-2020-beauty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-kBGLAwRyY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVGG3kU22bM
