Okay, so I’m on the NYC subway last week, and I saw a coupla posters for a campaign asking people “Are you pouring on the pounds?” and urging us all to cut down on the sugary drinks.

“You’re drinking 68 packets of sugar in just 4 sugary drinks a day” proclaims one poster … which is just inches away from a poster claiming that “You’re drinking 85 packets of sugar in just 4 sugary drinks a day.”

Now, is there anyone (besides the agency that created these posters) who thinks that the reaction of someone on the subway is going to be anything other than: “Well, which is it? Is it 68 or 85? Or maybe it’s 23 or 147. Or maybe this whole nanny state campaign is a crock of … sugar!”

To be fair, the drinks that are being shown are different in each poster, but c’mon: That’s asking the average citizen to think a lot harder than necessary in order to get the message.

In this case, a positive social message is essentially being undermined by an inconsistency in that messaging. The result, imho, is probably a campaign that’s rendered more irrelevant than effective.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Marketing Stuff.