pure essentials : what went wrong

here is what went wrong in the pure essentials relaunch ad campaign - i wonder if they realize it, but based on the print ads, intentionally or unintentionally, they are operating on two very different strategies.

it's possible they only have one strategy but they are probably unaware that they are coming out with ads that are written very differently from each other. another possibility is that the strategy was so poorly written, too complicated and didn't have focus that there are two ways to interpret it. there is even no attempt to achieve some kind of focus on sameness or put enough common denominators in the two print ads.

the mother strategy is about attacking skin dryness for the family. their support or reason why has two components - the celebrity mother who is concerned about her children's skin and the medical professional who is concerned about harsh ingredients in soaps.

the first print ad, a teaser ad that featured the doctor was single-minded on being anti-safeguard and product-centric. while the second, which features maricel laxa as the celebrity endorser-mother who is concerned about her children's skin.

both is supposed to tackle dry skin (it's in the headline) which makes it appear it's a focused strategy, but it really isn't. that can be seen at the end result, the two print ad's contents and brand personality come out very differently.

there is an obvious confusion in these ads. i wonder if it's being caused by a poorly written copy strategy or a very poor interpretation of the copy strategy by the ad agency. one more thing, the advertorial format of the ads is not helping them. an advertorial format allows you to write many paragraphs, theoretically, you can put everything and anything into the ad. and that is exactly what the creatives did. if this was a typical intro or brandsell print ad, you certainly cannot put everything into the ad. the space limitation forces the creatives to be selective and give focus to their writing. don't get me wrong, focus and being on strategy can be achieved even in an advertorial, it's just in this case, weak understanding of the strategy and sloppy writing did them in. i get the feeling the creative director did not clear this ad.

pure essential's anti-safeguard soap war is a dud. and a WAWAM!