Way off: Braun's 'Wear your face' campaign

WTF?!

Braun is running a TV commercial these days with one of those uber-handsome, metrosexual model types us regular guys simply cannot relate to. A corresponding ad (above) runs in Redbook, and again a weird model was chosen. Kept black & white, both ad & commercial 's main punch line / slogan / claim reads: WEAR YOUR FACE. And what the hell is he doing in the picture on the left?

WTF?! What? I shall 'wear my face'? What does that mean? Where is the benefit here? What does this razor do that others don't? This line is just as bad as LG's 'Life's good'. It tells us nothing about your company, your brand, your product. It's just a silly line thrown out there that has no relevance and relation to what you are selling. It's one of those 'detached-from-reality' blah lines. I can hear the CD who wrote this rambling on about emotional appeal, aspirational brand image and the like, but come on: wear your face? That's just confusing.

Even the subhead in the print ad reveals nothing. "The perfect gift for back to college." Again. Why? Lesson 1 in copy writing: no one reads body copy in an ad. 1.4 seconds. That's as much time as you have to convey your message. In a picture. And a few words. If you can't say it in those few big letter words you put on the page, chances are you just wasted a lot of advertising dollars.

Don't believe me? Go to the public library, read online in the Journal of Consumer Research, and you'll find plenty of studies about research on advertising impact, especially print ad "consumption". Surprisingly, most copywriters / creative directors continuously tend to ignore these facts. Or perhaps they don't know. Or they don't care. Who knows?

The only piece of information that gets me excited about this ad is at the very bottom of the page: "Designed to make a difference." Aaah. Here is a message I get. My mind interprets this as: "Our team of dedicated product engineers and designers has spent endless hours and days, and tons of R&D dollars analyzing your needs and wants in a shaver, and we have created a piece of technology that will stand out from the competition, and you can feel it." Finally. Unfortunately for Braun, 99% of readers will have turned the page after the 'Wear your face'?! confusion.

Recommendation for the Braun Marketing team: rethink your strategy. Listen to the brand planners first, and don't be fooled by pretty pictures. Then craft a simple and powerful message that corresponds with the image. I bet you can do 10 times better than what this campaign is doing for you.

Related links:
Braun's website
Braun on facebook
Braun on YouTube