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Does exaggerated advertising work?

By Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal on 9 Comments / 2904 views

I guess you’ve seen this Samsonite Cosmolite ad a few times now on national TV:

I do NOT doubt that this experiment is indeed ‘true’.

As in, everything that happens in this video must ACTUALLY be happening and hence the Samsonite Cosmolite bag IS as tough as it is made out to be.

My question and the moot point of this blog post is:

– Isn’t the example over exaggerated to sell a suitcase to me? I mean, when on earth was the last time your bag was caught between a metal slab and a passenger car in an accident?

– At worst, even if you’ve been involved in a head-on collision accident with another car or in a car that slammed into a concrete wall, then in all likelihood, your bags were……errrr…. at the back of the car, in the trunk. I guess the bags were Ok. And I sure hope you were ok too!

In India, I FEAR THAT:

– At airports, once my bag slowly slips away from my sight at the check-in counter and travels down that mysterious conveyor belt, my bag will be, most probably, handled without care.

– It will be thrown, chucked, shoved, piled, tossed, smashed and compressed by men, machines and subject to weird situations.

– Newspaper stories of Amjad Ali Khan collecting a broken Sarod that he checked-in (despite telling baggage handlers to be careful with it) and similar horrific stories are constantly etched in my memory.

Shouldn’t these real life situations be demonstrated using this magic bag rather than an example I can never relate to?

– Now remember, bags seem to be badly handled on departure and arrival as well.

There is a strong case to go across India and shoot and record real ‘baggage’ handling processes in smaller airports that may indeed destroy or damage your bag.

As an example, if I fly from Mumbai to Indore (and it becomes known that baggage handling is poor in both places), then why not show me how badly my bags are handled in both places and then sell me this Cosmolite thingy?

Travels by Trains and Buses in India is another angle that can be covered?

I believe:

– Ads representing the ‘Benefit’ of the product they are selling should be ‘Realistic’ and what I call ‘Relatable’ (something I can relate to) – not ‘Unthinkable’ and ‘Exaggerated’.

– Creating ‘real-life’ dramatic situations and explaining how that product can help me in THAT real situation works much better for consumers – who know that these things CAN HAPPEN to them and hence there is a way to prevent damage.

– ‘Imported’, a la ‘foren’ communication doesn’t work for me. This ad seems to be a global one (on youtube it’s dated 2011 and has an Australian origin), but in India, show me what is Indian. Show me the use of this bag in India.

E.g. – I am sure they don’t have tractors that pull luggage carts across tarmacs in Germany. But in India they do!! So show me how Cosmolite would behave if an Indian tractor ran over it!!

*****

Question – Would you buy products that show its ‘exaggerated’ use?

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9 Comments

  1. While I agree with your premises, I do not agree with your conclusions. Here’s why:

    1. The point of advertising is not merely to “represent the benefit of the product”. It is to sell the product. Pepsi / Coca Cola do not have any “benefit” they are selling, and instead are merely buying top-of-mind-recall. And that translates to sales.

    2. I do not think they have played the “foren” card here (except for the slight accent). They have not said “the best selling suitcase in America / England / whatever”. Instead, they have chosen to exaggerate, and have done that beautifully.

    3. I have no doubt that the ad you thought of will also do decently well. But that would have been a completely different approach. Maybe “a day in the life of a suitcase” concept. Almost all of us would be nodding our heads when we see that ad the first time. But that would not have had the shock value, as well as recall, of this ad. In this version, by the time you realize it is a suitcase ad, you are jolted awake. You would most probably have been expecting this to be a car ad, and were decoding the information with the schema of a car ad, when suddenly your schema gets shattered. And this is what you will remember for a long long time. Even when you go to buy your next suitcase, and see this in the store.

  2. Your views on exaggerated advertising seems pertinent and obviously different advertising campaigns have different effects on different people.

    However from the standpoint of debate and some of the successful stories of advertising, I can well argue that often advertising is all about creating an impact in the consumer’s mind no matter how relevant they are. Lets take the Samsonite Advert. It shows a car ramming against a suitcase under test conditions. I believe it truly sends the message of the strength of the suitcase and that too done with an impact. A high speed car banging against the suitcase create lasting impression on the consumer’s mind which no mishandling of bags at airports can replicate.

    Case in point, check the out this IKEA commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tetOSMilRKg

    It plays on emotions of a lamp and then makes fun of it. In reality, we never think about old furniture the way the advert says. However, the advert is just great enough to tickle the funny as well as emotional part. So, its all about bringing the right emotions and creating the right impact in the minds. Brands have little to differentiate through a 30 sec advert and bigger the hype the better it is.

    Comments welcome.

  3. To me advertising is entertainment. It is extremely rare than I have decided to buy something based on the advertisement. Besides no one makes more entertaining ads than India.

  4. The bag may survive but what happens to the stuff inside it?

  5. Check this out.

    American Tourister tried what you expect, but that did not help the company much. It was from the same company. Samsonite owns American Tourister. Point to note, this ad caught no one’s attention here! When saw crash test ad first, the reaction was ‘it the bag can sustain this, it can sustain anything’ and it remained in my mind. It immediately created the association with strong, durable and reliable. So in a way the ad achieved what it aimed to. Though it may not be able to save everything inside every time. The MD of the company says this product moves quite fast. Not only this, it also created a similar association with other Samsonite products, some of which I use. American Tourister ad did not ring any bell in my mind. Exemplary on-the-job performance has become a standard requirement in the eyes of the customers, so something more is needed to attract and keep attention.

    There was a dialogue in the film Fareb, where Manoj Bajpayee plays an ad agency guy, who is trying to explain advertising to his client. ‘Madam, paanee bhi pyaas bujhata hain, to agar aap kahoge aapka yeh cold drink pyaas bujhata hain, toh koi kharidega nahin. Lekin agar aap kahoge kee yeh aapkee pyaas jagata hain, fir koi baat hain’ (Water also quenches thirst, so if you say ur cold drink also does that, no one buy. But if you say drink will awaken ur thirst, then that’s something)

    Exaggeration does work and it’s been used in many ads. Thums Up Akshay Kumar ads is another example.

  6. This is right on similar to BMW’s ad which has been viral ever since its posted on Youtube. You know BMW and the kind of cars they roll out; and you know that it can’t in any way beat the fastest car in the world – which is designed to be the fastest car in the world, but again, you can’t help yourself but appreciate the knack behind this ad, it just leaves you with the intelligence and wit that BMW carries around itself. I must say the brand itself settles down in your mind subconsiously in this particular way..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MYjowQHi28

  7. Entrepreneurs sell dreams,

    Coke spreads happiness

    Nokia connects people

    Honda showcases the power of ideas

    Shah rukh khan asks if he has made it large !? – Alcoholic beverage

    Advertising = creating perception and that’s what these companies do to sell overpriced things you dont really need !

  8. Hey..this post reminded me of my attitude towards such exaggerated ideas… i guess i believe in exaggeration…

    REASON –  Samsonite, in this ad, is selling the ”strength” of it’s bags so visibly that you simply can’t miss it – even between the meals, between the talks or between the household matters…this one is certainly clear on its purpose. Thus it also makes it easier for you to interpret it’s advantages according to your purpose – for example – if you are an air traveler – you are free to draw the conclusions from this ad according to your requirement.. 

    At this point, I would also like to share one of my blog post which I wrote on a similar topic… hope you will enjoy it – 

    https://nailbites3c.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/drama-zaroori-hai/

    But, no matter what, you always end up giving us a good read! 

    Regards,

    Anamika Joshi

    nailbites.in

  9. It is subjective to each and every viewer about how much BS they want to believe shown in ads these days. A lot of people (mostly from India – for whom this ad would have been localized) would come to simple conclusion after seeing this ad is – my bag won’t crack and will hopefully save the items inside it when i give it to the porter at the airport. 

    However, I do concur that it would have made more sense to have a more realistic scenario – train/bus travel in the ad. Having said that, I believe they did try that in previous ad where they show a tourist visiting India gets his bag stolen and thrown around but is safe n sound later on.

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