Big Hands Advertising Campaign: Know Thy Audience 2

In 2006, a lingerie manufacturer ran a series of advertisements promoting their push-up bra. Hardly anything new, except that the lingerie company — long known for their notoriously creative (and historically award-winning) advertisement — decided to add a different twist with their advertising strategy for its range of push-up bras.

What did the lingerie manufacturer do?

It removes female models from the advertisement. No bras, no lingerie. It doesn’t showcase the product. It doesn’t even show the effect, or benefits, of these products.

Wait a minute. Did we say benefits? Maybe, after all, I’m missing out on it. Here’s Wonderbra’s print campaign, in collaboration with advertising agency Publicis Conseil, Paris.

What do you think? Is it sensible marketing, or just a very desperate, tasteless even, attempt at being “cutting-edge” witty?

Have your say, but the advertising campaign won the silver award at Epica Awards and won the best print award at AdPrint. Kind of go back to the old argument of advertisement that is conceived out of a need to please award bodies. You know those ads. You’ve seen them. Bordering on the edge of impracticality but given a ten on the “creativity” criteria by the generous panel of industry experts.

“Not practical from the market consumption point of view? At least we bagged another award at the advertising event last year and this.”

Now, let us be fair. I like creative advertisements. They stand out like a sore thumb from the heavily overloaded pool of brainless advertising. They sticks. Brands that carry those advertisement tend to be recalled more easily too.

But not all creative advertisements are good. Being conspicuously unconventional means the advertisement ranks high on the creativity score. Problem is, the market doesn’t always treat the most outlandish piece of advertising with optimism.

For the moment, many would solemnly accept the fact that some advertisements are out there to entertain, win applauds, and rack up awards. Others are designed to bring in the money.

As for series of Wonderbra print advertisement, let’s just say its reception among females were, at best, mixed. A fairer assessment (don’t take my word for it, research and apply some critical thinking) might even tell you that the ad did not find enthusiasm among ladies, which is, the company’s main demographics if that’s not painfully obvious to you.

The ads were drawing too much attention to its humour. To its witty nature. Men wouldn’t mind a laugh. Ladies? A bit more complicated.

A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.- David Ogilvy

Before you make your judgement, and I hope you haven’t already, we ask a few questions to ourselves.

Questions like, “Would a professional, career-aware lady find the ad appealing? Would a different social group of ladies find the ad convincing? Would they find the men with big hands adorable, or rather, would they feel comfortable with the overall portrayal of this message?”

If you answered “no” to more than one of these questions. You probably have already made your judgement.

But the Wonderbra Big Hands campaign weren’t looking at these question.

Because Wonderbra Big Hands was developed for Valentines Day (2006), and because the print campaign was meant to go onto FHM.

If you’re unfamiliar with FHM, it is originally known as the For Him Magazine and is popularly known for its FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World and High Street Honeys features.

I even cared enough to include a screenshot of google’s search results:

Does that answer part of your question now?