Thursday, March 30, 2006

Naaaaaaah! Don't call me FAT!

A cardinal rule when making an ad or a campaign or any communication: Don't tell the consumer that you are wrong or try to show him in a negative frame of mind. This campaign does exactly that. "Fat people don't want to be told that they are fat!" and that is the truth. Every fat person will tell you, don't tell me my problem, I know it and don't want it to be repeated.
This campaign by Ogilvy for Zaf Fitness Club is a pun on the word "Burn Fat" but I'm of the opinion that it would repel a large segment of the TG due to the light in which it potrays them. Trust me, nobody who's fat wants to be called it, let alone be hunted down and burnt! Well, sometimes it does pay to put your creative brains aside and think about what your consumer might think, coz it's the only thing that matters at the end of the day!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You assume that the intended audience is people who are out of shape, but its more likely that its intended to spak to the mean, cruel people with torches... people who are gym fanatics and despise people who are carrying some extra pounds, the sort of people who delighted in agiving a good wedgie when they were in jr high school.

Anonymous said...

Strong production. Weak idea.
I don't like.

FT said...

It's often the more 'politically-correct' folks that find these abusive to a certain degree. In this case, most likely it's the skinny people that feels: woa... that's so offensive to the 'fat' community.
If you have 2 focus groups, one group heavy, the other group slim. It will be the heavier folks that find this campaign funny while the slimmer ones are frowning and say: woo~ I don't know about that.. that's hurtful.
Of course, focus groups don't necessarily work, but that's just how people react socially. Just like what Todd W. said: the ones that actually react to these ads are most likely gym fanatics, the fat ones would still be care-less and buy ice cream when they are at the mall.

anwar said...

you can use negative approach when u want to create a category like in the beginning deo companies did so but in the existing category its not good