Every advertisement elicits an emotional response but the thought of getting one of shock is absolutely shocking. Shock advertising or 'shockvertising' may not be the new kid on the block but the growing competition in the market makes it more important than ever before. When the objective is to catch maximum eyeballs the "shock therapy" works wonders. Whether the idea is to evoke emotions or to generate buzz or just to get the masses talking a shockvertisement hits the bullseye. A shockvertisement may frighten, challenge the norms or mention the unmentionable the key is to strum that rebellious cord in every customer. United Colours of Benetton which has defined shockvertisementsnot just challenged the conventional every single time but built a successful campaign of "union of colours".Though deprecated time and again due to racial contents UCB never failed once to capture attention.
Whether it was the nurse kissing the priest; black woman feeding the white baby; multiracial family; the black, white and yellow hearts; black and white hands in one handcuff or my personal favourite- the graveyard, all scream the message loud and clear " UCB is for anyone and everyone".
In the Indian scenario where even UCB has taken a softer stand the shock factor needs to be free of sexual(think Calvin Klein) or racial innuendos the job gets tougher and asksfor much higher levels of creative thinking. Recently Volkswagen achieved the appreciative task through its audio ads in two leading newspapers
The bottomline however remains that you can find them lewd, terrifying,immoral or offensive but you can not ignore them which is the idea at the first place. isn't it?
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