If the art of advertising (one of them anyhow) is closing the distance between the brand and the consumer, you can’t do much better than this.
Do we know you? Yes, we know you. This is sometimes the most urgent question advertising has to answer.
I’m told that the people responsible for this work at Digitas were Michael Frease and Jeremy Bacharach. Hats off to Jon Hall, Senior brand manager at Whirlpool (See Dale Buss’ interview of Hall in Brand Channel here). I would especially like to know the names of the people who did the ethnographies. Really top notch work all around.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the magnificently talented Scott Donaton.
When I saw the ad, I also appreciated the consumer understanding. But I didn’t think the connection to the product was all that strong–is finding the right settings on a washer all that difficult? Actually the real life challenges that the ad references almost serve as proof of how trivial the features of the washer are.
Martin, I think the UI design work here is so good that indeed these machines are not hard to operate. And eventually all competitors pretty much zero out in terms of functionality and ease of use. Which means “do you understand me” really begins to be a differentiator. In my scheme of things, the meanings of the brands almost always (eventually) trump the utilities of the product. Thanks! Grant
But if you don’t have kids, the washers aren’t for you, right?
No. If you’re an anthropologist and you admire culturally artifacts beautifully observed, it’s also for you. And it’s for anybody else who likes ads and brands that give us a chance to see ourselves. Because we don’t just like what we’re like.