What’s ‘Reality Advertising’: And Why Mumbrella Was A Little Harsh
Something annoyed me about an article in Mumbrella a few months ago. It was talking about ‘fake’ campaigns, and yes ‘Witchery – ‘Man in the jacket’ was mentioned (a Naked campaign from a few years ago). The article suggests the campaigns break a fundamental cornerstone of ‘truth in advertising’. What I found irritating is the overly simplistic suggestion that advertising is either ‘real’ or it’s faked.
In the world of ‘entertainment’ we’ve seen drama recently usurped by reality TV. Look at the phenomenon that was ‘The Voice’, or ‘Masterchef’. However, anyone in TV will tell you there is not a dichotomy of ‘reality TV’ or ‘drama’. There is everything in between:
- Reality TV: Observational and non-interventionist e.g. arguably The “Up’ Series
- Structured Reality: Looking for stories and editing them together when it appears e.g. Bondi Rescue
- Fixed Rig Reality: Loading loads of cameras around an event or place, and hoping something interesting happens. E.g. One Born Every Minute
- Soft Scripting: Using non-actors and giving them loose scripts / discussion guides to follow e.g. The Shire
- Drama: Actors following a script e.g. Home and Away
Now, the same applies to advertising. If you think about all of the various forms of ‘faked’ advertising around we can see that it starts to mimic reality TV. Here are a few examples (all debatable as to what category they belong to):
- Reality advertising: The brilliant ‘Will it Blend’ series
- Structure Reality Advertising: Levi’s Rear View Girls
- Fixed Rig Reality Advertising: McDonalds’ Playground
- Soft Script Advertising: The 28 Day persecution of Rommy Gulla, or ‘Oak Reverse Robberies’
- Drama Advertising: Nearly all other TV commercials
Now in 2013 and beyond, I predict that just about all of the interesting innovations in advertising are going to come from the emerging world of ‘reality advertising’, and not the traditional and (ironically) fake world of drama advertising.
Advertising has been slow to embrace the ‘reality’ trend, as marketers believe that brands should be glossy and shiny all the time. However, we are now, in developed countries learning to ACCEPT who we are, and stop ASPIRING to be someone else. There are more messages that being who you are is ok. With this macro cultural change advertising will begin to have more reality messages, just like TV has embraced reality TV and film has embraced the documentary. Those marketers who dare to portray their brands in a more ‘real’ way (albeit realizing that ‘real’ is a fluid term) will get rewarded.
Here’s an attempt at a definition to get things started.
Reality Advertising: Advertising that limits the use of a script, actors, and other ‘staged’ elements in the production of advertising.
Finally here’s a great example of Fixed Rigg ‘Reality Advertising’. One of my favourites from 2012, expect a lot more of this in 2013.
Fritz Bachen is a Consumer Psychologist and Founding Partner at Naked Communications. Fritz can be seen, read or heard at; The Gruen Transfer, ABC Radio (Sunday nights), Adnews columnist, as well as The Australian, Cleo, Mumbrella, Shop Till You Drop and so on. He speaks at numerous conferences on marketing, ideas, contemporary culture, and consumer behaviour. Fritz has degress in clinical psychology and commerce (marketing). A registered psychologist and has worked in private practice, forensic settings, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi) and marketing consultancy (Added Value). He was also state under 12 chess champion on WA, and has a board game called The Analyst selling well in the Benelux countries.
Comments
Dan
Jan 2nd, 2013No argument from me. A lot more interesting way to do things. It’s also a lot harder.
Warren
Jan 5th, 2013I agree a little more reality in advertising (if that’s possible) is a good thing. A long as it doesn’t push too hard into cheap stunt territory. While the last example is lots of fun, watch it a few times and the novelty wears off quickly. It’s great as a carefully managed ‘viral video’ but you can’t run it on TV. Interestingly, Simon Veksner seems a little more guarded on the subject http://bit.ly/WtRAfq
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