PhotoDude.com

Tue. Apr 30, 2002

What Kind of Capitalists Are You?

What Kind of Capitalists Are You? – This tickles me in a special place. "At least nine national cable networks have turned down a potentially lucrative—though controversial—ad schedule from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. No national cable networks are known to have accepted the ads. The 10-day flight is an image campaign from the Arab nation. The tagline for the spots is ’The People of Saudi Arabia—Allies Against Terrorism.’ "

Each of these cable networks was looking at a one third to one half million dollar ad buy. And … they … said … no! Let the adspeak begin! (emphasis added gleefully by me)

" ’We always want to take the money,’ a senior advertising executive at this network said, [reassuring his colleagues that he had not recently been dropped on his head or abducted by aliens] but the Saudi ads are ’not appropriate for our brand.’ "

”We asked them to revisit the creative or we cannot run it”

Appropriate for our brand? Revisit the creative? I’m sorry, I can’t go on, my sides are aching. Basically, no one can bring themselves to tell the potential client, in plain words, ”your ads suck, and are going to hurt you more than they help you, plus get us beat up in the process. Take your pile of money and go back to the drawing board.”