Time for good ideas

Bizarre. I’d passed this poster a few times and assumed it to be a warning about pollution, leaks or the perils of (corroding) oil pipelines: the picture all gloomy and menacing, the headline with the problem, URL for the answer.

There was even a fake oil company name, Statoil (State Oil, as in Big Oil?). Why had Greenpeace or FoE not put their logo on it, though?

The reason (obvious now) is that it is an ad for Statoil, the Norwegian energy company. The most recent 'good idea' on the site seemed to be that King Harald V of Norway visited the Statoil stand on the opening day of the ONS show in Stavanger.

I clicked on ‘deep dives’ (see what they did there?) to find out that “gas is delivered directly to UK shores through an extensive pipeline system”.

Then even further into the site, “the main limitations for future oil supply are not below the ground, but in our heads … There’s never been a better time for good ideas”.

On the subject of not such a good idea, is this even bizarrer ad for blackcurrant Lucozade.

(Thanks to Simon for the spot.)

I know it's aimed at people younger than me and this is a rather reactionary point, but ... it's hard not to think that it tastes so disgusting that you want to spit it out.

'There's a word for it ... yeeuuurrgghh!'

Oh and that it is full of colourings.

A shame, because the Lucozade 'yes' campaign, especially the films of cool people roller blading somewhere Californian are really good.

Which all goes to prove … it’s not as easy as you might think, this communication malarkey.

Comments

[Tim]

Nice analysis.
With Staoil, it's extraordinary that such an expensive poster leads to such flimsy content online.
Just illustrates the way brand communications can often be fragmented, with the cracks at the point different agencies meet.
The Lucozade ad could have been great – imagine if they had made a great motif of the coloured tongue, just like iD magazine did with people winking on each front cover (showing my age there).

[kevin]

Thanks for the comment, Tim. You'd almost have thought that Statoil's ATL and digital agencies had never worked together, so 'unjoined up' the comms were. And I don't imagine many people would have gone to goodideas.statoil.com ion the first place ...