Be There
by asi
The latest Smirnoff ad campaign is all about being there, unforgettable moments etc. “I can’t believe I was there” you hear someone says in one, “this was crazy and I was there” someone says in another. They are actually really nice and enjoyable to watch. I was looking for the one that is aired on UK TV these days with the quirky themed fancy dress party but only found these two instead:
They are cool, aren’t they. Lots of beautiful people come together spontaneously and throwing a fuck-off party. Believable? Well of course not but this type of advertising isn’t suppose to be believable but sexy and aspirational.
Reason I’m writing about these is that what immediately caught my eyes in these ads is the blatant absence of cameras and mobile phones. You don’t see a single person taking pictures or (pic)tweeting or anything alike. It’s almost as weird as seeing all these people with one eye or only three fingers. (it surely reminded me of Heidegger and the blind person’s cane)
Hell, it feels so 1983! It made me think again about one of the most interesting phenomenon of our generation, that is, the dramatic changes we all undergo regarding being in the moment vs. sharing the moment.
Just look around you in gigs, festivals, conferences and parties or read your twitter/ facebook stream and you can get the feeling that reality or the experience become less important than taking a picture or tweeting about it. Put differently, being in the moment is not as interesting as documenting the moment and telling stories about it. It’s up to you to decide if you want to be judgmental about it but you can’t ignore the fact that self-broadcasting and sharing technologies mediate and therefore change our realities and experience.
Very un-Zen.
I wonder when someone (a brand?) will take a stand and say: Just Be There.
this is painfully true and it’s not only the sharers who miss out on the icing of the moments, but also those there with them – those who share become temporarily absent from the moments really.
Just a thought. When you’re at a lecture/course/presentation and you’re taking notes, you’re actually saying: I’m willing to sacrifice 10% of being here towards remembering it later and being able to talk about it. Not so different conceptually. BTW, this is coming from an obsessive ‘documenter’ (photography). What is far more interesting to me is that we document only good things and if you follow one’s album/iPhoto you can assume they’ve only been to birthdays and celebrations throughout life. Have you ever pulled out your camera/phone during a fight with the partner? when someone cries?
It’s a really interesting case study. I’m not sure I personally agree that documenting and sharing experiences is more interesting than being there. It depends on your motivations I suppose. I do agree that the ability to share, realtime has changed everything, but not always for the better.
I went to see It Felt Like a Kiss in Manchester at the weekend. That was definitely an experience to enjoy in the moment and not compromise by connecting with the outside world. To do so would have broken the spell.
Of course, ALL experiences can become stories – and therefore social currency – but sometimes being entirely ‘there’ is more engaging than being other places at the same time.
The joke of course is that by condensing this insight into an advert, the story becomes the focal point and the experience is a manufactured myth to tell that story.
Adland: Be there.
Cheers, paulina, udy, andy
I think that I had it wrong…
maybe what’s changing is our ideas of “being there”?
maybe the obsessive (not being judgmental) pic taking and tweeting etc is becoming part of being there?
BTW, i’m not sure this conversation has anything to do with Smirnoff’ strategy and insights. The strategy as I understand it is just about ‘unforgettable moments’…
hey asi.
I agree, generally. I wrote before about why every single party is fancy dress, and why we’ve all become like bad japanese tourists mindlessly snapping away without actually experiencing.
I think it’s something to do with the overall perception of quality of an event being made up of 2 things: experiences + available documentation.
in the old days documentation was little (no cameras, no sharing), so the best nights out were the ones that were actually the best.
nowadays, if you want to be known for the best party, you need it to have the best pics, that everyone will see. Which is why fucking everything is fancy dress.
doubtless there will be a throwback trend to more secret no cameras allowed parties and other such crap.
to record a situation you have to remove yourself form it = not being there. anyway, those adverts are fucking shit. crowd + ‘spontaneity’ = fail.
I’m gonna set aside my comment on the “documenting” topic b/c I think it is something that is here to stay for a long time. With the 3GS & HD Flips, it will no longer be about how awesome the photos were from the party, but about how awesome the videos were… and then the mash-up of all the videos & photos and so on.
What I do want to comment on is the Smirnoff spot. I’m with Nathan. This idea that Smirnoff gets any type of positive association from the fictional hipster flash-mob is a serious stretch. You can drop a can of Pepsi into that ice bucket and it’s the same spot. I think this spot (and many others like them since i’ve noticed a trend) assumes that the audience just mindlessly says “Oooh, they are having so much fun! I need to drink some Smirnoff Ice and i can be ‘crazy’ too!”
Create the experience that will let your customers value the fact that they were “there” and do something with all the content they created, instead of making one up with pretty people and turning it into a :30 spot and then you’ve got something (all though this strategy is currently jumping the shark as we speak).
I think you are all over thinking it. For the demographic that the ads are aimed at, it is really the case of them seeing it and thinking that could be me. You never go broke underestimating an audience as Barnum said.