I mentioned in the post on Jak Smyrl that we took a little road trip this past weekend. As is my habit on road trips, I did a little billboarding. Truth be told, down the stretch of I85 we were on, there’s not much else to do. But that’s neither here nor there. I like billboards. They can be great fun. What a wonderful opportunity they give you to tell your story. They’re sort of the Twitter of the highways if you will. You don’t have a whole lot of space, and at 70MPH+, you don’t have a whole lot of time, to tell those stories, so, they better be good. Most aren’t unfortunately.
Some of the most effective billboards I’ve seen are from the folks at South of the Border. They have a whole series of billboards on I95 that go on for miles as you approach the North Carolina and South Carolina border. The are funny and corny and silly and stupid and oh so engaging. Each one tells a little story or engages in some wordplay to describe South of the Border.
Several of the ones we saw on this trip really made me scratch my head though. The first one had the company logo (well recognized by travelers in these parts, I won’t mention it by name as I’m not trying to pick on them) and these words “Old Country Values.” What the heck does that mean? And, what in the world does it have to do with eating? (Which is what this establishment specializes in.) Is it referring to the “old country” where our ancestors hailed from? Or, is it referring to “country” as in “country kind of folks”? Lots of different kinds of values involved there and I’m still not sure what any of them have to do with food.
Another one I saw told their story using this line, “Operating on a higher level.” Huh? What is that supposed to mean? It was for a medical facility, as you might have already assumed. Along with that headline was a graphic of a young Doctor McDreamy or McSteamy type of surgeon and a nurse, both smiling down at us through some clouds as we passed beneath the billboard. Now, I ask you, is that scary or what? How can you operate at a higher level? Or a lower level? Or somewhere in between? Please tell me you’re not out there at a higher level communing with Tim Leary while you’ve got that scalpel in your hands.
Are you perhaps, trying to imply that your surgeons are better than the others at a competing facility? Is that how you’re trying to make me feel warm and cozy about my impending surgery? Because if it is, I have to tell you, it fails miserably. The last thing I want to see or be reminded of before surgery is a bunch of clouds or a “higher level”. I’ve been there. I know. I wanted to make it through the surgery, not meet my maker, which is what I’m reminded of after seeing that billboard.
You have to ask yourself, what were the copywriters thinking? Who in the world signed off on that? Now, in all fairness, I’ve written my share of crappy marketing copy. Copywriting is a very difficult business and doing it well is an even more difficult discipline. It could very well be that someone in management decided that they needed a “catchy phrase.” I’ve been in that situation a few too many times and what it almost always leads to is copy like that. But come on folks, words mean something, or are supposed to at any rate. They work with each other to amplify and modify. To evoke emotional responses. And in the case of copywriting, the kinds of responses that will make us want to buy a product or make use of a service or offering.
Think about that phrase and how it works. How in the heck can you operate on any “level”? I know that space and time are limited in the billboard world, but come on, surely it can done better than that. In this day and age maybe you could be thinking about telling us how your facility and staff benefit us, the patients, not how other worldly your surgeons are.
On the trip back I saw another billboard advertising another medical institution. This one was for a children’s facility. The message was presented in a much better light, I thought. There was a graphic of some random kids dressed as superheroes. None recognizable, just capes and tights and the like. No Batman or Superman to detract from the story. The message? “We restore superpowers.” I don’t know about you, but that’s the place I’d feel pretty good about going to for treatment.
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I didn’t know billboarding was verb. Thanks for the illumination. : )
Love the post. Lot of good writing lessons here!
Sort of like skateboarding!
As I’m sure you know, you have interesting landscape to look at along the interstates of TN and don’t need to resort to making up verbiage as you drive.
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