🏢 You Don’t Have to be Mad to Work Here, But… (you know the rest)
When Mad Men – the critically acclaimed, Emmy award-winning TV show about the advertising industry in the 60s – came out, audiences were intrigued by the ‘mad’ (ha!) world of advertising. It painted it all in a very sexy, attractive light: smoking, drinking and napping in the office; pitching poetic advertisements to clients; cheating on wives (okay, that’s actually not sexy at all); and wearing thick, sweat-inducing suits all in the name of looking suave.
Those curious viewers, however, would find themselves rather disappointed if they saw what it was actually like – this ain’t the 60s anymore, kid!
🧑💼 First of all, we barely even wear suits.
🏡 Secondly, a lot of us are either remote or hybrid workers, so no one’s smoking or drinking in the office (Well, technically there’s nothing stopping you from drinking at home, but we wouldn’t recommend it… oh god, please don’t start drinking at home then blame us for it, we don’t want that responsibility.)
📺 Thirdly, our ads, especially in B2B, aren’t nearly as poetic as they once were – if anything, they seem to be getting weirder and weirder by the day. If you were to go on LinkedIn now, you might come across an ad from the likes of Knowlton or GetAccept, and you’d see this very weirdness we’re on about.
🍄 Get Weird With It! 🍄
Knowlton, a creative marketing agency based in Kent, UK, has this hilarious ad with the title ‘Imagine if a GCSE Drama Class made an advert for a Marketing Agency…’. In the video, three men (one wearing a wig) melodramatically pretending to be in a drama class.
GetAccept, a sales software company based in California specialising in customer success, took a different approach to their weird B2B ads. After typing on a computer someone looks at the camera and says something which no one in business would say. Then, a title card appears simply stating, ‘Said no one ever’.
Both of these ads, contrasting as they are, are weird; a far cry from the poeticism of a gorgeous Don Draper pitch, and yet they stick out in your head for that very reason. They’re funny, unique, but most of all, they show personality. And this seems to be a growing trend recently – B2B LinkedIn ads are getting weirder, and there is a very good reason for it: social media and short form videos.
TikToks, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have become the norm for a lot of people’s entertainment, and with so many people making their own weird content, the absurdity of life is more apparent than ever before.
🎉 ”YOU BUY ONE, YOU GET ONE FREE! I SAID YOU BUY ONE, YOU GET ONE FREE!”
If you were raised in the U.K., you probably read that title in the exact tone and voice it was spoken in. Remember?
If you ignore the fact the bloke from the advert was a tax evader and eventually owed the taxman a hefty £53,000, this ad was bloody genius. It was outrageous, out-of-pocket and showed a personality that no other business on TV was showing. This isn’t a B2B ad, but it’s a perfect example of the beginning of weird advertisements; to this day, if you quoted it to someone, they would recognise it and likely crack a smile.
So, next time you’re on LinkedIn, pay attention to the amount of weird B2B ads you get (you won’t be able to not notice them now.)
Rightio then, how was that? Do you feel informed? Good!
As time goes on, we hope to expand, tell more stories, and really get versatile with it. We’d also love to hear what you as the audience would like more of, so let us know!
We’ll see you next week, stay tuned 😎
Sam Hollis is a Writer for Fame, SaaS Marketer, as well as his own fictional short stories. He lives and works in Birmingham with his three cats and his dog (way too many pets, if you ask us)