The secret to creating a standout ad is simple. Just go against the grain.

Posted by John Mescall on August 27, 2010

 Why does beer advertising always try to be funny, yet wine and spirits advertising usually tries to be serious or dramatic? Do people share a laugh over a beer, but stroke their chins thoughtfully when drinking vino? And have you ever seen an ad for any kind of alcoholic beverage with less than two people in it?

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Why does fashion advertising take itself so immensely seriously, except for Diesel, which has turned the “piss-take” into an art form? And why does every other brand in the space let Diesel have this brand tonality all to themselves?

Why is retail advertising always so urgent and loud, and why do we always use the colour red when we’re having a sale?

Why do we have so many category conventions? Are they a good thing, a bad thing, or merely an inevitability? And why so many question-marks?

Well, last things first: I think it’s good to question, and we don’t question things nearly enough. Just because there are very good reasons for doing something, doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t ask “why?” Or better, “why not?”

Category conventions exist because people feel uncomfortable questioning the status quo. Schools are great at knocking that ability out of you, and many workplaces aren’t much better, so you end up with a whole bunch of accepted wisdoms and standard practices.

Maybe things become accepted for extremely good reasons, but it always pays to have a few people around to stir things up with a bit of well-aimed contrariness.

Ever noticed that food is pretty much always shot with the same kind of lighting techniques? Cars too. Election advertising always follows the same template: one series of ads showing the party leader speaking in a reasonable, optimistic manner, and another series of ads that are grubby, muckraking and miserably negative.

The hair and beauty category is even more serious than fashion, and there’s always some mock-science thrown in for good measure. Luxury goods run a mile from humour or even wit, as if the human bowerbirds who collect such expensive trinkets see nothing even remotely amusing in their pursuit.

Toilet paper ads always use heaps of natural light, possibly an attempt to completely and absolutely distance themselves from the actual act of bum-wiping, which is probably fair enough. Would anyone dare to use the colour brown anywhere in a toilet paper ad?

Airlines only ever show business and first-class seats, although hardly anybody flies up the pointy end. TV and radio ads aimed at blokes use blokes with really blokey voices, although hardly any of those blokes know anyone who speaks like that.

Ads for gyms never show anyone who looks like they need to be there.

Financial services companies use blue, environmentally-conscious “natural” companies green, luxury brands black, quirky businesses go orange, discount retailers use a mix of blue (for trust) and red (for cheap), etc.

Identify the conventions of the category and actively resist following them, and you’re two-thirds of the way to doing something that won’t blend in with everything else. Easier said than done, of course. But if you wanted easy, you wouldn’t have gone into advertising, would you?