In the past, advertising and marketing could get away with flubs. If an ad agency produced a piece of work that missed the mark, upset people or created an outrage, it could pull it. And that was that. It was never heard from again. In fact, the only people who were likely to recall it were the creatives working on it, and the account manager with a flawless memory.

I remember hearing a story about a Weight Watchers print ad in the UK that had to be pulled, as it featured Sarah Ferguson touting a headline about her sister-in-law Diana being “dead jealous” of her new figure. Allegedly, this ad appeared just after Diana had died in that horrific car chase in Paris.

You have never seen that ad, because it was done at a time when the Internet was in its infancy compared to today’s web. Cell phgones were still gaining traction, and camera phones were not prolific. Even then, they did not take good images, and were not linked directly to social media accounts (which did not really exist).

In effect, the ad was given a pass because of the technology of the day.

Nothing Can Disappear From the Public Arena

Fast forward to today, you know exactly what would happen to that erroneous Weight Watchers ad. Hundreds of people would take pictures of the ad and Tweet it, or put it on Facebook. There would be a social outcry. Weight Watchers would have to apologize profusely for not having the gift of foresight. People would boycott the brand. And all because an ad agency and a client could not see into the future.

The same can be said of more recent events. Take the horrible massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The morning after that awful tragedy, the NRA twitter feed spew out the following message:

“Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend Plans?”

If the Colorado tragedy had not happened, this would just be a boring message that few would have noticed or responded to. But the lone gunman killing 12 people and wounding over 50 more in the early hours of that morning threw a completely different light on it.

Perhaps it was a pre-planned message. Maybe the NRA doesn’t follow the news. But whatever happened, it came across as both asinine, insensitive and downright insulting. Hardly surprising that the Tweet was deleted, and the Twitter account that created it was deleted a few hours later.

Similarly, ads that walk a fine line between funny and offensive, or cool and crass, can also live on. Ads in the past few years that can still be found on the Internet include the “gang rape” print ads for Dolce & Gabbana, BMW’s “not a virgin” ad, and the WWF “9/11” ad that had every almost everyone in the media up in arms.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Of course, now that there’s a bottomless hole in which to store and retrieve ads, tweets, billboards, photos, videos and anything else you can convert to digital form, your great ads can live on. And on. And on.

A clever billboard can be seen around the world, not just in the city it’s placed. It can reach millions and millions of people through social media channels. And it can be seen not just during the campaign window, but years from now. The same can be said of smartguerilla, greatprint, radio and TV, and to some extent the web (ironically, it’s harder to find examples of great web work because it does not exist in physical form, and website experiences are difficult to capture in screenshots).

In effect, the shelf life of both good and bad ideas has been extended to, well, forever. So take note; whether your ideas are good or bad, they will outlive you. So you better make sure they’re not just good, but absolutely fantastic.

by: Paul Suggett