Wongdoody

Wongdoody for Foxy Lettuce.


Wongdoody for Gossip Girl.

These two ads show the opposite ends of the spectrum of work that Wongdoody produces. The Foxy Lettuce spot is boring with a capital "B" and is advertising a boring product, while the Gossip Girl outdoor ad is sexed up and promotes a sexy, glamorous show on the CW network. The stylistic nature of the work leaves me a little unclear on the agency's identity, as far as the characteristics of their work are concerned; the work on Wongdoody's website felt like there was no congruency, or no common thread, linking the style of the work from one ad to the next, which is evident in some of the more creatively defined agencies. I can't imagine the ad for Foxy Lettuce did anything positive for the brand; this is another example of how much more unique advertising must be for a mundane or ordinary product (and you can't get much more bland than lettuce). However, the ads Wongdoody created for the Gossip Girl campaign resulted in number one ratings among the target audience (women, ages 25-35...too bad there a bunch of 13 year olds watching and learning from it) for several consecutive episodes. What is amazing about the results of this campaign is that prior to it, the show was suffering in the ratings and was on the verge of getting cancelled. I don't necessarily agree with the overt sexuality in every single one of the billboard or outdoor creations, but I have to credit Wongdoody for using an interesting execution strategy in their work for Gossip Girl. They flipped all of the negative press that the show was receiving into a scandalous, but successful ad campaign, which highlighted the negative aspects of the show and turned them into something positive. That last sentence reeked of Bill Bernbach's "truth in the negative" tactic that garnered him so much acclaim in his VW campaign many years ago. Clearly, the strategy still works because the billboards for the CW's fledging show peaked America's interest and girls (and gays) across America are still tuning in to find out what the scandal is this week.