Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Does “Dexter” Slash Through the Advertorial Line?
Each morning as I pass through the Times Square Station of the NYC subway system, I notice hundreds of people on a mission: get to work fast and be sure to make eye contact with no one along the way. It’s usually at this point in my morning commute that I realize I am one of those drones. And at the same time this is usually where I “snap out of it” and begin to appreciate the rest of my day.
There are often very innovative advertising campaigns displayed in the station and lately I’ve been drawn to the ads for the season three premiere of “Dexter” on Showtime. In each of the ads, a mock magazine cover has been created with some play on the word Dexter to replace the magazine name. With D-E-X-T-E-R in the font and style of Rolling Stone, for example, onlookers can immediately make the connection to magazines that are familiar to them. And the headlines are just as keen, with the Wired mock cover reading, “Everyone’s favorite hacker is back.”
These ads aren’t just interesting, they’re compelling in how the cover is likely to resonate with readers of that magazine. And yet they don’t insult the magazine brands or their readers in any way. This brings us to the fine line between advertising and editorial – something that was clearly considered at length when creating this campaign. In my former life at About.com, I was often the arbiter between Church & State; attempting to earn every ad dollar we could while not pushing away users and, thus, future ad opportunities. Having lived that life for several years, I can say that I’m much happier at a pure play ad company, but I still value and respect this balance in the advertising I see every day.
Kudos to the Red Group, Initiative and all the magazine editorial folks that, together, executed an excellent campaign that certainly walks the line, but doesn’t seem to cross it.
Posted in: Agencies, Business by Jared Skolnick @ 11:53 am Permalink |
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