marie france vs slimmers world, doing it right versus doing it wrong

there is a different marie france print ad at the PDI, published in the same page 3 space.

first, let me make it clear - i do not see the marie france print ad as winning any advertising award soon or even later, neither do i see it as the epitome of a brilliant print ad, but comparing it to the slimmers world print ad, it's very plain to see what "doing it right" means and what "doing it wrong" means.

it's a great comparison specially because both companies are direct competitors (although i suspect they have the same owners because of the similarity in marketing approach, but that's just a suspicion) and more often than not, their ads are published on the same day, occupying pages one over the other in newspapers. it's a great study at looking at how two different companies competing in the same industry, both going after the same target market comes up with very different print ads, one doing things right, the other doing things wrong. and we're not even talking about strategies, it's easy to see where it fails just on the execution part.

the above marie france print ad have many things right - ad concept was very simple, it had focus and was obviously single-minded in message. the visuals (side-by-side tummy comparison) are also eloquent - there is no way you can miss the message the print ad is conveying. just look at the pictures and you get what it means. there is no doubt at all on the message it is telling you.

there are a few more ways to improve it, here are two - they could have been a little more playful and they could have exaggerated the differences between the two tummies even more to make for a slightly funny but more arresting print ad.

there is a slight problem - bikini tops and bottoms of the two women in the ad are different. they could have made both talents wear the same bikini tops and bottoms to make a cleaner and clearer side-by-side comparison. but that's just being very fastidious.

now, compare the above marie france print ad to the latest slimmers world palenkera print ad:

this slimmers world print ad is an excellent ad if you want to have sore eyes. aside from the sexy bikini-clad, long legged talent in the print at, you don't want to read anything else on the ad, much less pay attention to anything. honestly now, after looking at that ad, can you actually recall what the message is in the ad? when exposed to the ad, most people will just admire the beautiful long legs of the talent and move on to the next page of the newspaper. they are gorgeous legs that are 1 kilometer in length!

comparing these two ads, it tells you the ad agency who did marie france print ad had brains in the right places and are professional enough to make a decent ad for their client. the ad agency of the slimmers world ad on the other hand have their brains only in their wallets whose obvious concern was just to pick up the 17.65% commission on these ads. it's a no brainer ad, and i don't mean that as a compliment. shame on the slimmers world ad agency!

i say it again, this palengkera slimmers world print ad is a WAWAM!