26 May 2006

on finding the truth

while we were in a meeting yesterday, we were interrupted by some weird promotional campaign for "Adevarul" ("The truth") newspaper. Several young girls dressed as authentic gipsies entered the room and invited each of us to pick one of the tarot cards in their hands, saying that they were guessing "the truth" for us, and then leaving an edition of the newspaper on the table. Although i should be happy since my card said "unexpected joy", i still cannot help but wondering what this campaign was trying to say about the newspaper it advertised. As far as i am concerned, finding out the truth from "occult" sources or practices is quite improbable, not to mention out of order and highly non-credible. On the other hand, i would expect from a newspaper some professionalism to investigate rather than the ability to guess the truth one way or another. I think about how the guys at Wieden&Kennedy described on their blog the atmosphere and the work flow in the Guardian headquarters, and then i think about how things must be working in Adevarul's editorial office, starting from the way they tried to advertise it. And i kinda get a distorted image, i think. Bottom line, I would really not associate journalism with this gipsy tradition, especially in today's circumstances. I can understand their intention to try and connect us with the brand, but i'm sure they could have found a far better way to do it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It seems ironic to me that a newspaper named the Truth would resort to a stunt to spread the word about their papers value.

Authentic difference in one's brand is what I long for as a recepient of advertising. But what we get here in the US and now it would seem elsewhere is simply novel, eccentric and silly attempts to get our attention.

Like you I respect the effort and the intention. But there has got to be a better way.

Found your blog via Servant of Chaos. First time here. Thanks for enlarging good conversations!