My Facebook status update, dated May 9th 2011 reads as follows:
The final extra credit project of the school year? Find a corporate ad. Not a political ad. A corporate one -That 'codes' a political message - perhaps inadvertently, but maybe not. I gave two examples- from FedEx & Xerox. Since this was an extra-c, the deadline is open. I may get answers all summer. :)
I added the note:
I had previously shared 2 earlier ads from Cisco. I'm looking for ads that seem unintentional but hit hard codewise – i.e. send an implicit message to targeted populations at key moments.
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So just for fun, here are the four ads I mentioned. There are many more to call out, as I love this topic. But these are a start.
1) Cisco
We knew that 2007-08 was going to be no usual sort of Presidential election season. Barriers would be broken. It was to be a new time. Here’s a rally around that.
Targeted at hip diverse mobile millennials, it showed a world in travel and motion, where books are rewritten. Where countries are transformed. And we are powerful. Something’s happening here. For the next era.
2) Cisco
I’d also introduced this in context to a previous Cisco ad, ‘are you ready?’ This ad not only creates a harmonious vision of one united world of many. It says they are all under one ruler. I mean connected by one internet. Virtually all of the traffic of which runs on the systems of one company. For some this ad was hopeful and triumphant. Others found it terrifying and prophetic. It was politically moving in either case.
The next two, I’ll clue you, appear to have politically rightward audiences in mind. But each is subtle enough to expand its base, to work into one’s thought process and be quietly convincing.
3) Xerox (and Ducati)
This one was ideally placed one early morning in March, pre market open, on CNBC’s Squawk Box. The morning that Senator Toomey, for whom limited government and the free market are not just an issue but a calling, was the day’s guest host.
What do the two characters in this Xerox-Ducati play represent, in that context? What’s the code objective? I think it’s glamorously evident.
4) FedEx
And perhaps the code-iest one of all! By FedEx. Look at this frame by frame. What do you see and hear?
This one’s powerful. If I have to explain why, then you aren’t in the target group here. My jaw dropped when I saw this one. I almost can’t believe it’s not intentional.
5) and onward...Which ones would you suggest? What do they ‘code’ for you?
The finest code examples take each person’s own preferences into account. They may say blue to one, and red to another – but do so at the same time in the same words.
Every political advertiser – and communications director - dreams of being able to do that. The very good ones can.