Highjacking of A Creative Idea... and Message.

One of things I offer my students in the deveopment of their skills as creatives is the challenge of doing a "competitive" advertisng campaign. The basic idea is to create a message from the number two or non-leading brand in any given category. The main idea or concept is that you can't mention the competitor by name or brand identity (ie.logo, product etc...)

It is often noted by the students as one of the most difficult challenges, but when done right it can create a strong brand message and often make the target audience stop and think before they purchase... at least have them consider your brand in the process.

I came across this ad when searching for some sample ads to demonstrate "quality" of this type of message, and I thought it was excellent.

Verizon launched a "teaser" ad for the November release fo the "Droid" handset and seeks to slam Apple's iconic smartphone on all the things it's perceived to fall short on, such as a lack of a physical keyboard and the capability to run multiple third-party apps simultaneously. In a play on the iPhone's "I," the campaign takes jabs at the handset with a series of "iDon'ts," starting with "iDon't have a real keyboard," "iDon't run simultaneous apps." The commercial ends with "Everything iDon't ... Droid does. November."

What followed was a unexpected spoof ad that hijacks the concept and content (video above)
I contacted the creators of the "spoof" ad to ask if they were students or basically what inspired them. Only known as "droiddont" who sent me the following message:

Nope not a student. And actually not just one person! It was a collaboration of three people - Ryan, Jon and Shawn.

All living in the USA. We all work in video production and we had some down time and decided to throw a mock commercial up on youtube.

Ryan and Jon are avid Iphone users, while Shawn wants to buy one whenever he decides to abandon his current carrier. While the droid ad was interesting, we thought it would be funny to kind of make a rebuttal to the whole thing.... and see what it would be like to create a counter viral video.

Since we all are into Video Editing.... Macs are pretty much the lifeblood of what we do.

Not bad... as of tonight (10/26/2009) the spot has had 91.203 hits for the spoof while the "real" spot has just a million. They are pretty good. Maybe they can email back and I can post there contact info if anyone is interested.

Currently the iPhone is dominating the category even with 100's of great alternatives currently available it's still leading. Question is for how long? Well the iPhone will not likely give up that throne, there are competitors who want to reach those who aren't 100% convinced or brand loyal (cultish loyal) to Apple. 

Facing nearly insurmountable competition from AT&T Wireless and its iPhone juggernaut, Verizon Wireless is capitalizing on the well-publicized download problems by airing a television ad that tweaks Apple's iPhone tagline, "There's a app for that."

Here is the "App"... turned "Map" message from Verzion, followed by the original "iDon't" Droid ad also from Verzion.


"There's Map for That"



Agency: McCann Erickson Worldwide

"iDon't"



Agency: McGarryBowen