Monday, July 28, 2008 Seares: ‘Bad’ ads against dengue By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THIRTY-SECOND TV commercials prepared by Cebu City against dengue have been described as grim and morbid. One scene has a teenage girl dying and her parents wailing in a hospital room.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña says he has tapped Bigfoot Global Solutions to make the “horror” films, complete with the genre’s images and sounds.
They’re into “badvertising,” which is not the traditional commercial.
Most commercials aim to stir dormant desires of the viewer and raise his lifestyle expectations to include, say, a house or a new car.
“Bad” ads poke fun at or attack regular ads.
James Harkin in his 2008 book “Big Ideas: The Essential Guide to the Latest Thinking,” says it started in the 1990s when radical advertisers and designers took digs at mainstream commercials. One spoof was on a vodka brand, showing a bottle labeled “Absolute Nonsense.”
To jolt, scare
Since government started using badvertising, it has been mostly to jolt and scare. The campaign against cigarette smoking is typical: Smoke, men are warned, and you can’t get it up.
The mayor’s commercials don’t sell a product but warn people that more children will die of dengue if they don’t clean their premises.
Possibilities of badvertising are limitless. Tomas can use it in other campaigns, with varying story lines.
A commercial against enemies of his favorite project will show a horde of migratory birds clawing at and ripping SRP critic Joel Garganera.
Another TV ad against officials who want to take away province-owned lots from city residents will have homeless families, playing blood-thirsty zombies, storm the Capitol.
