Supermouse and Rory: Unfortunate Ads

It is extremely difficult to predict negative PR, especially as daily papers such as The Metro and The Telegraph give advertisers little or no time to react to issues. Added to this is the issue of avoiding placing ads near brand-deterring features, which in itself is a challenging feat.

Here at Pure we’re massive ad geeks; we don’t miss a thing! And every now and then we’ll empathise with advertisers who have been incredibly unfortunate with their ad placements.

Today there has been two cringe-worthy mis-haps:

1) Supermouse vs. Picnic Club

On page 9 of today's Metro reads an article about Tesco's apparent "Supermouse" issue with the headline: Tesco failed to clean up droppings, grease and filth after failing three inspections.

With a Tesco “Picnic” ad on the following page:

Ouch! A perfect example of why it is important to liaise with editors around current issues to avoid this situation.

2) Terrible round...Great watch nonetheless!

Poor Rory McIlroy had a "miserable" opening round at the Open yesterday, finishing 13 shots behind the lead. The Telegraph did not let him off lightly with a series of unflattering photographs and write-up which evokes a cringe of sympathy:

To add insult to injury, an abject post-feature Omega ad endorsed by, you guessed it, Rory McIlroy.

It is incredibly unfortunate to have an ad placed so closely to a feature which achieves the absolute opposite to the brand goals. Using celebrities as brand ambassadors increases the risk, another example is our Sharapova-Evian #PurePoint. 

It's just one of those things all of us in the industry have nightmares about!