One of the curses marketers agree to bear when they start writing ads is that they’re forever evaluating ads as they come across our screens. Like the film buff that couldn’t ignore the horrible color grading and lighting in the theatrical release of Wicked, there’s a marketing trend that really grinds my gears. What I’m talking about is taking a product or product type, turning it into a verb, and calling it an ad campaign. Usually these lazy marketing approaches start with, “This is how you [insert newly verbed word]” or “How do you [verbed word]?” We have thousands of these ads, and they are absolutely devoid of any creativity, creative messaging, or effective branding.
If you haven’t noticed this trend yet, I’m sorry for bringing it up, because now you’re going to notice it everywhere. From “how do you pizza?” to “this is how you hotel,” you’re going to start realizing that the advertisers of the world don’t respect you. These ad agencies, which are ridiculously overpaid, don’t feel that you’re intelligent enough to digest a more nuanced or targeted message. These agencies think, “a better way to insurance” is going to have you running to their website to get a new quote for insuring your auto.
I don’t know why this trend has had such long legs, but we’re not seeing it slow down at all. Major brands like Chase Bank, IHG Hotels, Papa Murphy’s, Geico, Capitol One, and many more all have iterations of this verbing campaign actively running on TV, radio, and online ads. In most cases, these campaigns end up being white noise in the background, because hearing, “a better way to business” just doesn’t mean anything and it carries no weight.
So what’s the intent of these ads? Well, they think that you’re going to accept that their brand is THE brand. People don’t say, “let’s go search the web for an answer.” People say, “let’s Google it.” At some point, these brands feel like they can ascend to this level, but this is very, very rare. To become the default verb for a product or service just doesn’t happen all that often. Most people can think of a few examples, such as Ziploc for referring to any plastic bag that seals or Vaseline for petroleum jelly; but in reality there aren’t many more that easily come to mind. These instances weren’t pushed on us through advertising either, they naturally evolved to become the default verb/noun naturally. So rather than inviting you to become an advocate of the brand, these advertisers are already trying to make claim that they’re the default choice.
I’m not sure when advertisers will move on from this trend, but I do hope it’s sometime soon. While I don’t love a parade of ads on any device, I can appreciate an ad that took some thought, planning, and clever execution.