Irish Times Ad Campaign - Bollocks?

pbsuxok1znja4r

I'm sure those of us in and around Dublin have all seen the new Irish Times ads on bus stops and billboards around the place. Personally I think they're a load of bollocks. Here are some of the "taglines":

"How many more of these must we tolerate?" - Accompanied by a picture of a roadside memorial for someone killed on the roads.

"Does the catholic church deserve absolution?"

"Should 3 million Irish around the world go back to where they came from?" - Accompanied by the oh-so-clever "pot and black kettle" illustration. I just love how this ad subtley plays up the immigrant issue, as if everybody out there was saying "Those foreigners should go back to...blah blah etc".

A picture of an anonymous 'protestor' with a picket-board reading "Replace Capitalism with something nicer.", accompanied by the phrase "...Any suggestions?" - And sure why wouldn't the head honchos of a successful national newspaper be opposed to capitalism in any way, shape or form? :rolleyes:


As for the Catholic Church advert, I'm not catholic myself, but I think it's a gross simplification and a generalisation. They're tarring the whole church with the one brush that should be reserved only for those clergymen who seem to bring the church into disrepute. Anyway, I shouldn't get into that, it's just the thing that really irks me about it is that I know some chump will look at ads like this and actually take them as informed opinion of some sort. In essence, they're insinuating that the church doesn't deserve 'absolution', or at least casting doubt over whether they do, when in fact, the short simple answer is that everyone does. (debatable)

The way I see it, The Times are casting their lines, baited with lowest-common-denominator pop-opinions that attempt to make the ad-reader, in agreeing with them, feel like a clever 'auld chap who's got it all sussed out. IDK, I just sense tonnes of smugness.

It sickens me that a newspaper would sink as low as appealing in their adverts specifically to of those who've been bereaved of loved ones through road-accidents. The way I see it, they're using dead people to try to peddle their papers.

Agree with me!

casanova_kid

To be honest with you, there has been no drop in the quality of the paper, it's still the best paper in Ireland but advertising that reflects badly on them can only damage their reputation.

simu

Meh, they're just trying to arouse people's curiosity - subtle arguments don't work on billboard ads. I don't care as long as there isn't a corresponding drop in the quality of their articles.

crazymonkey

scouser.tommy wrote:

Agree with me!

quite simply yes i do,,

Litcagral

The advertising is obviously working as it's generating debate and discussion and therefore increasing the profile of the newspaper. You know what they say - "there's no such thing as bad publicity".

Fajitas!

scouser.tommy wrote:

lowest-common-denominator

Hammer. Nail. Head.

It's what media sales are boiling down to really. Scandle,sex, violence.

And Irish people love to bitch...

senordingdong

Advertising rarely reflects the product being advertsied and that is not the intention of these ads either.
They're just trying to sell their paper.

Mossy Monk

scouser.tommy wrote:

I'm sure those of us in and around Dublin have all seen the new Irish Times ads on bus stops and billboards around the place

i have seen them in Waterford too amazingly

dead air

Should 3 million Irish around the world go back to where they came from?

That tag caught my eye this morning.


I don't think their tag lines are supposed to insinuate anything (like you mention about the catholic church deserving absolution) maybe you felt it was but I think that they're simply attempting to be thought provoking. Inviting people to make up their own opinion. I don't believe that the Irish Times would ever deliberately dumb itself down.

Alkers

I like the one:
Do you think a credit card limit is a target?

DonkeyStyle \o/

Should 3 million Irish around the world go back to where they came from?

Yes, definitely... PADDYS COME HOME.

John R

scouser.tommy wrote:

And sure why wouldn't the head honchos of a successful national newspaper be opposed to capitalism in any way, shape or form?

Seeing as The Irish Times is a trust not a corporation it is far and away the least likely to be blatantly biased due to commercial forces.

scouser.tommy wrote:

Agree with me!

No.

It's an ad campaign, nothing more. The Ad industry is filled with vacuous stupid plagiarising scum that see everything and everyone as fodder to sell whatever product they happen to be touting at the time.

FACT: The quality of an ad has no relation to the quality of the product it is promoting, any resemblance between the content of the ad and the product is entirely co-incidental.

Offalycool

"How many more of these must we tolerate?"


Sums it up really

IceHawk

scouser.tommy wrote:

I'm sure those of us in and around Dublin have all seen the new Irish Times ads

I saw a couple here in Limerick too, I have to say there is soething a bit off about them. They're not provoking interesting debate, as the format would suggest, but just picking hot topics from recent years that are bound to resonate with the greatest number of people. It seems lazy, and even though it's meant to be provocative, it provokes the wrong sorts of feelings, imo.

humanji

They're better than the old ads: "We know what you're thinking." "We know where you were on holidays" "We know what you want". Those ones really seemed threatening!

segadreamcast

I liked the older set - from last year - which were in a similar category, though slightly more thought-provoking e.g. "Is shopping the new religion?"

I liked those - bet you guys didn't . OP seems to just have a problem with the Times to be honest. If they got rid of Roisin Bungle, it'd be almost perfect for me.

pbsuxok1znja4r

NoelRock wrote:

OP seems to just have a problem with the Times to be honest.

Nah, I came off sounding very anti-Times there, but I don't mind the content of the paper itself, in fact The Times is really the best of a bad bunch here, it's just the ad-campaign that gets on my nerves.

IceHawk wrote:

They're not provoking interesting debate, as the format would suggest, but just picking hot topics from recent years that are bound to resonate with the greatest number of people. It seems lazy, and even though it's meant to be provocative, it provokes the wrong sorts of feelings, imo.

Exactly, that's essentially what I was trying to say.

I'm just in a general 'rant against the media' kind of mood, I suppose. Really I should be taking it out on sleaze-ridden tabloids. But hey, they sell.

Bungalow Bill

I used to hate the one that said , "We know you dream of escape".

I wasn't happy then and always wondered, why the hell do they have that as an advertising campaign?

toffeapple

Why I dont understand is the fact that their advertising at all....do they think that a Sun reader will be standing at the bus stop and go "hey thats clever..i think il buy that!!"
Probably to justify their marketing department

segadreamcast

Yeah this is true Mr. Apple...

...Do the Times need a marketing department at all? I'd imagine that newspaper readership is something that remains fairly consistent and unchanged - certainly not changed on the back of an advertising campaign at least (though Sunday papers buck this trend, since nobody has any kind of brand loyalty there at all)

toffeapple

NoelRock wrote:

Yeah this is true Mr. Apple...

...Do the Times need a marketing department at all? I'd imagine that newspaper readership is something that remains fairly consistent and unchanged - certainly not changed on the back of an advertising campaign at least (though Sunday papers buck this trend, since nobody has any kind of brand loyalty there at all)

YUp sundays papaers is different alright...thats why they throw crappy cds and second rate movies at ya....

The Sweeper

If readership remained consistent and unchanging, the Irish Times wouldn't be advertising on billboards and bus shelters to try and gain a share of the market currently occupied by Irish Independent and Examiner readers.

The Indo is a more sensational newspaper than the Times. The Examiner, despite losing "Cork" from its title, is still seen as the rural broadsheet. The Times is letting its hair down a little to try and get modern readers to see that it's no longer the stuffy, under-edited, parochial letter-from-the-lectern that it used to be.

However, the stories that the Times is focussing on appear to be "generated" based on the slogans people have posted in this thread. It's something I find with Ireland - the media have his perception of the things that they believe the outside world think are Irish problems. It's as though they think Irish people should be ashamed by the behaviour of the Catholic Church, and therefore the Church as a whole has to pay penance to the nation. They also think Irish people should open the borders of their country to every migrant seeking access, because there are millions of people of Irish descent living all over the world.

It's over-simplification of issues that are as much created as they are actual, to try and generate interest in a lethargic leadership.

Have they got any billboards that say:

"Why can't this country deliver a rail-link to the airport of its capital city?"
"Why do we seem to want to live up to the stereotype of 'typically Irish' every time something is f*cked up?"
"Why are the government so busy trying to be friendly to migrants that they're neglecting the welfare of their own people? When are they going to understand that it's okay to have a set of minimum criteria for entry into a country?"
"Newsflash - the streets of America are no longer Paved with Gold"
"How not to be the technological hub of Western Europe in ten easy steps, including never upgrading your telecommunications infrastructure."


It always used to get me that the Sunday Independent used to extol the virtues of a cafe society that Ireland simply doesn't have (it's not Paris, it's not warm, and the historic drink of choice was never coffee). Now it appears the Irish Times is heading the same way, disguising pap as cutting-edge journalism.

Then again, when your media market is so tiny, every extra reader becomes important.

segadreamcast

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

If readership remained consistent and unchanging, the Irish Times wouldn't be advertising on billboards and bus shelters to try and gain a share of the market currently occupied by Irish Independent and Examiner readers.

Relatively consistent and unchanging. I've never met anyone to change their preference in a newspaper based on an advert...the most oft-cited reason for a change is when their favourite is sold out - and they're forced to buy another newspaper, which they discover that they like more. Granted, I'm sure somebody is swayed by advertising - but I can't imagine they get much "bang for their buck", especially in the broadsheet market.

simu

They would also be trying to attract young people who are only getting into the habit of buying a newspaper every day...

thewillow

NoelRock wrote:

If they got rid of Roisin Bungle, it'd be almost perfect for me.

It will be perfect very soon.

simu

thewillow wrote:

It will be perfect very soon.

She's leaving? :eek: