Unreadable six-point mousetype footnotes running vertically up the left-hand side of a full-page broadsheet ad emphatically do NOT give customers "a sense of greater control." Rather, it shows American Express may be trying to hide something sleazy if not downright dishonest.
A single insertion in the Times is roughly $194,000 a pop with the agency picking up a yummy commission of $34,000 each time it runs. In the words of blogger Mary Schmidt:
The halls of AmEx's ad agency must have been ringing with cynical laughter as they wrote all this hoo-ha. I have this mental image of the gang from Mad Men holed up in an office tokin' away … "I Am SO High."
Denny Hatch is a freelance direct marketing consultant and copywriter, and author of the e-mail newsletter, Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense. Visit him at www.businesscommonsense.com or www.dennyhatch.com, or contact him via e-mail at dennyhatch@yahoo.com.
