In what on-lookers are calling advertising’s most sadistic twist to date, TiVo has hired the independent San Francisco ad agency Grant, Scott, and Hurley to create the advertising that will, if successful, ultimately end advertising as we know it.
“It’s simple. People hate advertising. So, strategically, it’s about ads that portray that people hate ads,” speculated one source close to the situation.
As agency producers, directors, and copywriters run for their jobs in the midst of “the death of broadcast,” GS&H is embracing the broadcast drought, presumably planning to live off the fat of the TiVo business at least as long as they have the account and there are still television networks in business to accept TiVo’s ads. GSH faces one important challenge though. Will it produce ads about bad ads illustrating the benefits of TiVo, or, in a post-modern twist, simply produce bad ads and hope viewers grasp the high irony?
Initial thinking indicates creatives will look to the cutting room floor for their inspiration. There’s certainly a lot of bad work that has never been produced and now might be the perfect time to recycle it.”
Posted by Adrants Contributor Alison Kosakowski of Powell.
