NOBODY ASKED ME, but…my best friend and partner Wayne Pibal, from whom the name if this column comes, would be turning over in his grave if I didn’t weigh in on Gov. Kriti Noem’s latest advertising debacle where she brags to the world that everyone in South Dakota is on meth.
And I do mean “the world,” as this ad campaign has been featured on all the network (and many of the cable) news shows, the late-night talk shows, and even Saturday Night Live.
Even in the Governor’s own weekly newspaper column, she feels the need to explain the campaign to us, as it seems like the $1.4 million she is spending on it is not getting that job done.
On Fox and Friends, she defends the program by saying it was successful because “it has gone viral” and “everyone is talking about it.”
But while the governor might feel like she knows everything about everything, including advertising, she really doesn’t.
“METH. WE’RE ON IT.”
With those four words, South Dakota ex-patriots living all over the country are cringing. And one of those “ex-pats” is Gary Bingner, who is the owner of Quasimodo Advertising in Minneapolis.
Bingner, a graduate of Washington High and the University of South Dakota, would have loved to have had the $1.4 million to make an anti-drug ad campaign for his home state. Instead, those dollars went to Broadhead Advertising, also in Minneapolis, which has no South Dakota ties that I know of.
However, there are plenty of good advertising agencies right here in South Dakota that are 1) more in touch with what goes on in the state, and 2) would love seeing some of the money they spend to pay the governor’s salary (as well as the salaries of most of her family) come back to them.
Any governor of any state should know that her first duty is to the citizens of her state.
Bigner told me that so many agencies are just looking for a “viral” connection, or something that will bring in awards, and often times, that means they are just looking for “shock value.”
But, as with the SD Meth ads, while the viral and shock value might be there, they are lacking the most important thing in any type of advertising, and that is a “call to action.”
If the audience is left on its own to fill the void from the missing call to action, no one can fault them for filling it with something unintended, i.e. “Boy, those South Dakotan’s must all be meth users!”
In that case, no matter what Gov. Noem tries to get us to believe, viral is bad. And what is more, it is a huge waste of money.
A good example Bigner had was an ad campaign for a health food store.
Imagine, if you will, a print ad with a blurry photo of chips, Twinkies, French fries and other bad, greasy foods in the background.
Superimposed over the top, in bold letters, is a slogan that reads “Eat Sh*t and Die!”
Some people might look at this as objectionable, though it certainly has shock value. But even without any copy, it also has a call to action: Don’t eat bad food, unless you want to die.
Sadly, “METH. WE’RE ON IT.” has no such call.
But no matter what the governor thinks about how great this campaign is, if she has to go on national TV to explain it, then it probably isn’t working very well.
