The Richards Group

The Richards Group is certainly put on a pedestal in Dallas; granted, they do a lot of great work and have large accounts, but so do a lot of agencies across the U.S. and abroad. Even so, they are usually ranked as one of the best places to work in Dallas, and The Richards Group will continue to be the holy grail for ad students looking for internships in Dallas. Much of the work created by The Richards Group uses humor as a key strategy in their ads, but the humor used often feels the same; it is a combination of awkwardness, exaggeration, and a lot of times, borrowed value. Borrowing value can be helpful to an advertiser under some circumstances; Nike borrows value from athletes all the time, and Pepsi has been known to borrow value from TV personalities and actors (Pepsuber/Macgruber Super Bowl ad in 2009?). The instances where I have noticed The Richards Group borrowing value have been in the last couple years at the Super Bowl, where they have played off of movies and spoofed a little too closely to the original. The two spots I have in mind are shown below, the "Taters" spot with the potato heads and the "whale of a tail" spot that aired this year at the Super Bowl. The potato heads are well known characters that Americans love from Toy Story and I don't see anything wrong with using these characters in an ad. However, I think The Richards Group could have been more inventive when developing the narrative of this spot; angry eyes came straight out of the movie, so you should probably think of something else to use in your ad. Then, the next year, The Richards Group turns around and creates their own version of The Hangover. I mean really?...rescuing an exotic animal and inserting dialogue about a bachelor party?!? They should have borrowed value from the actors in that movie; the spot would have been much funnier. These spots make The Richards Group look like a bunch of copycats, and they aren't; this agency does put out a lot of credible work...those two spots just aren't it.






Since The Richards Group is a local celebrity in Dallas, I compiled some of the spots I considered part of their best work:



haha love it. This is for Quik Trip and reflects the typical character of a Richards Group work.



This is for Ad Council and takes a more serious approach than what The Richards Group is known for. It has a very different thematic approach as well in that there is no real narrative, as there usually is in their work, but it is effective because it is so simple and impactful.



This is more artistic than humorous, more sophisticated than realistic. It is for Hyundai. I had to get at least one dance ad in this blog! Get it Pilobolus.