Branding Bloopers

In the latest edition of Digital Life, they featured the latest Nokia 6110 Navigator. In an anecdote expounding the wonders of the mobile's GPS navigator, they related a sorry story of how a teenage girl and her friend got lost after a attending a concert at the Kallang Indoor Stadium, somehow ending up at a bus stop where all the bus services were foreign to them. Moreover, the bus service had ended for the day. The story goes on to say how she transmitted her geographical coordinates from her 6110 to her dad's PDA phone, who in turn had to transmit that data to his car's GPS device. The dad has since proudly sworn by the phone's good function after father and daughter reunited on that cold, cruel dark night. Oh ya, that scary episode ended in 20minutes flat! I think they stay in Katong la.

Now, if the daughter had gotten lost, at the very least, at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, I have nothing to say. But seriously, Indoor Stadium? Kallang? GPS? Huh????? Oh come on!

This probably explains why I always wanted a boy. But with a dad like that? You can't blame the daughter, can you?

My next gripe has already been around sometime now. But with the latest launch, it seems no one has noticed the boo boo yet. Yes, i'm talking about the one and only Citibank-SMRT Platinum Card.

Hellooooo? Am I the only one seeing this big oxy- moronic collaboraton? There used to be a time when the Platinum card was a highly-sought-after-yet-limited-to-the-exclusive-few privilege. Now, the card holder is not limited to the supercar owner, but to a public transport commuter too.

And of all banks, it's a surprise that the high and mighty Citibank is committing this industry faux pas.

Oh, oh, and did you ever see this very irritating Pepsi Max commercial featured in the theatres about a boy chasing down his 'bad cheetah' and sticking his hand down his pet's throat to retrieve his can of Pepsi Max, ending with his "duh" friend saying 'that's why I keep a pet hamster'?

Some of these well-heeled advertising executives, along with the ones handling Singtel's MIO and 3G advertising account (please, don't even get me started on that MIO pig), I say, should be sacked and banned from the industry altogether.

They simply cannot make it.

Now, if I was doing a poster ad for the 6110, it'd say ... 'Get Lost' ... The exact 2 words I'd say to that dumb groupie from Kallang.


redcocoon