PSA serves as a cautionary tale for social marketers

This PSA from Illinois DOT is making the rounds of the ad bloggers today, some of whom believe it should be in the running for the worst ad of all time:

How does a wreck like this happen? And more importantly, how can you keep this heartbreaking tragedy from striking your agency?

The first role of social marketing is to raise awareness. Luckily, you’re already reading Osocio, so you’re aware of what makes a good socially aware campaign. Supplement your online diet regularly with blogs like this, along with Ads of the World, AgencySpy, AdFreak, Adrants and Copyranter, among others. Having shared the success of great ads, and felt the fail of the worst, you’ll be able to detect the telltale signs of a bad ad early. Before it spreads outside of the Creative Department.

The second thing you need to do is change behavior. This can be difficult, especially if you have a new client relationship and they are asking you to do something you know is wrong. The temptation to say “yes” is strong, especially among Client Services, but you must resist. Instead, you can show them this Illinois commercial. Consider it a “scared straight” campaign for would-be Creative Directors.

Finally, you have to prevent backsliding. But just as a dog returns to his own vomit, so does a worn-out adman (or woman) fall back on clichéd concepts and corner-cutting production.

I have a prescription for that.

Read the reverse-engineered script for the Illinois PSA that appears after the jump. Print it. And frame it in your agency,

A better public service campaign against bad creative has never been made.

You Drink & Drive, You Lose: IDOT “Dreams Shattered”
(As transcribed by Chicagoist)

0:00-0:02 Shot of grave with digital-looking tombstone from a camera with vaseline smeared around the edges.* Voiceover basically reads the title of the spot.
0:02-0:05 Teary eyed presumed fiancee looking wistfully into the distance.
0:05-0:07 Bad music-video-esque shot of bouncing bachelorette party. What, no plastic penis necklaces or penis popsicles? Voiceover...basically reads a description of the scene.
0:07-0:10 Laughably ham-fisted “Larry the Cable Guy” clone drinking in his truck & driving around.
0:10-0:12 Red light seems to imply that drinking Cable Guy should stop his pick-em-up truck.
0:10-0:17 You can almost hear the blushing bride in the shotgun seat screaming “NOOOOOO” three octaves lower as the camera zooms in to imply Larry smashing into the car.
0:17-0:18 I’m no IDOT official, but that car doesn’t look too bad.
0:18-0:21 Woman with ash smeared on her face, looking somewhat bored.
0:21-0:23 Bloody hand pokes out from under a sheet, conveniently near a tiara. Drama!
0:23-0:26 Larry the Cable Guy and his cliche-ridden overall-clad ass gets put into a squad car.
0:26-0:30 Cut back to gravestone, dramatically “engraved” with “KILLED BY A DRUNK DRIVER BURIED ON HER WEDDING DAY”

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Comments

A million dollars spent on the time buy… and zero dollars spent on the script. This was obviously a vanity project for someone. Nice try on the execution but Don Draper couldn’t save that script.

OTOH, the catty piling-on from afar is a little unfair in the context that this spot was done internally, with no budget… like those IDOT guys had a choice what their bosses told them to shoot.  The critics here are full-on internet tough guys, quarter-backing it from the safety of their coffeehouse laptops like they are the next David Ogilvy or something. It is all well and good to stand up and say you won’t make something that’s crap, until it is your own boss writing it and telling you to make it, or else.