Negative Advertising
I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the concept of negative advertising. I’ve never done it and have discouraged it when discussing business building with workshop participants.
For those who don’t know what it is, negative advertising is the criticising of your competition’s products/services in your own advertising. Ryan Air learned a tough lesson yesterday – they had to pay damages to the founder of rival airline EasyJet for lying in an advert that criticised their rival.
But is negative advertising a good idea in the first place? It always seems to me that you should advertise your products/services based on their strengths. Conversely, just because a competitor’s offering is deficient is some areas, that doesn’t say anything about yours.
On the other hand, some negative advertising has been highly entertaining – Apple’s adverts lampooning Microsoft were very funny. Contrast the Apple adverts with the Windows 7 “I’m a PC” adverts. It just goes to show that even large corporations make big mistakes when it comes to advertising campaigns. Apple’s were successful and funny; in my opinion, Microsoft’s were naff and cringe-worthy and smacked of “Me Too!”.
And if you are going to use negative advertising, then heed the lesson Ryan Air has been taught: make sure your facts are indisputable!
What do you think? Is negative advertising ever justified and if so, when?


16. Jul, 2010 

















