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Ad Targeting Firm Turn’s Pioneering Ad Depicts Sex, Booze And Murder

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Ad targeting firm Turn, much awaited commercial debuted during last night’s Mad Men season finale drawing a lot of debate and discussion about its unconventional and controversial content. The daring ad has received recognition in the New York Times and many other media outlets, Mediapost, B-B and Adrants are singing its praises.

The commercial is set within a plush office, where a man is seen fixing a drink for a stunning blonde woman. They clink their glasses and passionately embrace. They are knocked out of their amorous stupor by the sound of the office door opening. A furious brunette with a gun bursts into an office. She bears an uncanny resemblance to Jacqueline Kennedy, right down to the dress and gloves she’s wearing. She glares at her philandering husband, draws a pistol from her handbag, takes aim and fires.

The bullet comes out in super slo-o-o-ow motion, spinning its way to its intended target. As it journeys a narrator says, “In 10 milliseconds, Turn delivers your ad to all the right online audiences with deadly accuracy. Never second-guess a decision—at least, not a business one.”

The camera veers away at the last moment and the viewer is left guessing as to who the bullet will hit – will the husband be shot, will the woman take the bullet, or neither of them?

Instead viewers are directed to another site where they have an option of choosing from alternative endings.

In one, as she fires, both the clandestine lovers dive for cover and the bullet harmlessly sails between them. He then pulls out a gun and points it at his wife. The blonde pulls out a shotgun and aims at the man, for double crossing her. Apparently, he must have told her he’s single. As if one was not enough, he now has to agitated females to contend with. He then put’s the gun to his own temple. However, no shots are heard, no trigger is pulled.

The other alternative shows the bullet hitting the glass filled with wine and at the impact, again in super slow motion it show the liquid and the glass shattering into a million pieces creating a kaleidoscope of infinite beauty, that is probably reflective of shattered lives in the wake of a cheating husband.

What has created controversy is that the gun-toting brunette in the advertisement is attired in an exact replica of the former first lady’s iconic, pink wardrobe that she wore during the fatal motorcade in which the President was shot. She is even wearing the same gloves, carrying the same handbag and the same set of pearls adorns her neck. The similarity cannot be a coincidence. What is the ad trying to say?

Not knowing whom the bullet hit, is a reminder of the ambiguity of Kennedy’s death that even so many years later conspiracies theories abound. The ad has only reignited that debate.

The ad also signals, the company’s attempt to promote itself through advertising. Till now, it has paradoxically abstained from advertising, limiting themselves to sponsoring events Advertising Week and other conferences that attract marketing executives.

Barbara Lippert, former Advertising critic for Adweek and writer of the Mad Blog for MeidaPost.com called the ad “clever”, for the way it was made and for the buzz it has managed to create.

Considering that it is an advertisement about advertising on an advertising show she said, “The really smart thing that they’re doing is that they can milk it for publicity because it’s such a meta thing.”

“We want our customers to understand that we build great software, yes, but we appreciate great creative, too, and it’s important for us to respect creative and do great creative,” said Mr. Alfieri. “We’re drinking our own Champagne.”

The commercial is directed by Michael Lehmann of True Blood and Dexter fame.

Ad Targeting Firm Turn’s Pioneering Ad Depicts Sex, Booze And Murder by
Authored by: Harrison Barnes