Turncoat Politics

New Animal Planet Ads- Not sure I get them

Ready.  Go.  

I’m really not quite sure that I get the new Animal Planet Ads.  There seems to be so much messaging going on that it confuses me.  I’m assuming it is generally a brand message play, but I have a series of questions:

1/ Message focus:

What is the bulk of the ad targeting?  The pitbull show?  First of all, isn’t everything really about something else?  Fringe isn’t about really gross weird phenomena, it is a story about a relationships.  Starbucks isn’t about coffee, it is about consistency.  Playboy isn’t about the boobs- it’s about the articles.  Right?  That is the fun of TV/Film/Theatre.  Hell, that is the fun of branding.  We get to figure out how to connect. We get to craft an experience together.  For Animal Planet to not be about pit bulls but rather about a foulmouthed ex-con with a big heart we are layering metaphor on metaphor around the brand and it is confusing.

Secondly, am I supposed to tune in?  There is no real call to action or information about the show itself.  So is it targeting the show or the brand?

2/ Message spread:

Multiple posters such as this and a wrap up of a tagline: Surprisingly Human.

OK.  that makes sense.  The brand uses animals as a lens for us to learn about ourselves, or the brand uses animals as a lens for a range of human experiences.  Something like that.  I am sure that someone was paid a lot of coin to figure that out.  Maybe they are confused by the ultimate execution.  So we are talking about the show without talking about the show, we have a two-line metaphor, and then a brand tagline.  If you have an engaged viewer for two to 30 minutes on the train, why not just use the space to have a paragraph about the show.  There is nothing else for people to do.

3/ Realization:

I just realized that the show isn’t Pitbulls and Parolees, but rather Pit Boss.  There has got to be some clarification for that.

I am going to look around more online to see if I can find out what Animal Planet was trying to do here.  There has to be an idea in there somewhere….