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Advertising is essentially gaslighting.
the new gold fish car wash makes no sense. a bottom tier idea everyone will pretend to love.
As someone with a kid, yup. Hits close to home. Goldfish crunched up everywhere in my back seat.
But overall I agree with the sentiment of this post.
Hey guys, can company that makes money by exaggerating product and service benefits stop exaggerating how beneficial their own service is? It’s not like this is the exaggerate product and service benefits industry or something!
you’re now unintentionally fanning the flames of the fire you’re trying to extinguish
I do have to agree with OP on this. They posted something that began with “we need to talk about Mischief’s viral car wash.” But a quick Google shows that it was covered by the trades and a few local Philly outlets.
It’s not like they need the coverage or don’t understand what “viral” means.
Rising Star
But if advertisers didn’t talk about advertising, no one would talk about advertising.
What are you talking about?
Pro
Every single post from Oliver touting their ideas as viral. The only people talking about them are other ad people
Rising Star
Assuming the primary target is parents of small children (likely the main purchasers of Goldfish), it’s based on a real and relatable insight (the kids drop them all over the car, in the crevasses of seats etc.), the execution actually solves a practical problem for the target (the car needs to be tidied after the kids make this mess) and it even offers a product trial opportunity. I don’t think it’s like a mindblowing piece but it’s pretty tight when you walk it through.
Pro
The idea makes sense. It is not viral.
Every time I see a new Mischief stunt I find myself thinking the same thing: this is portfolio school-level stuff. A really long capri sun. RelationChips. Cheap stunts that aren’t solutions to anything.
No earned media vanity metrics make up for that.
You don’t like their outback tv spots?
The Goldfish one needed more context than just seeing Mischief’s LinkedIn post.
Getting the crumbs out of your car was a bit buried on LinkedIn, as it’s about “detailing” and “cleaning” at a car wash.
I’m sure consumers were seeing this coming from the brand with clearer context as to what it was about.
Pro
I understand the idea. Doesn’t make it viral.
Nope they probably can’t