Hey Draper, You Can't Use The H-Word in Advertising
Sunday, June 12, 2011 at 02:00PM I never went to Advertising College but I can guarantee you the first axiom they tattoo on every Freshman deltoid is "Know Your Market."
So who is this ad for?
Are we the girl? Is the girl standing sassily in opposition to us? Is Bank of America making fun of the girl? The ambiguity is overwhelming.
This thing actually combines two advertising cliches I despise: ads that use the word hipster like it's an actual relatable thing and ads that are subway-specific. When a poster tries to get all "in the trenches with the soldiers" I can't take it.
As with most ads that invoke the H-word, this one doesn't know if it's making fun of hipsters or courting them. Since no one has ever self-identified as a Hpstr, it can't be for them so it has to be for everyone else, right? Which makes this a stupefying bit of copy because it's telling all the normals (us?) that the people vaguely known to be insufferable entitled brats have way more access to cash now. Is that good?
Listen, Bank of America. If you're going to draw lines in the sand, you have to pick a side.
FlatRate takes it one step further by really specifically calling you a fucking asshole before asking for your business. Don't make fun of your customers, dicks. Also, Resolve daddy issues? God you're awful.
"Hey babe we're hipsters, right? And we're looking to buy. Maybe we should go to this."
- No one
I sure hope the agency that made this didn't get ridiculous boatloads of money (they did). If anything, the H-word does the largest disservice to calls-to-action like this. The poster is literally calling you a hipster for donating money. I would say these places need youth consultants but they were probably the dummies that came up with garbage like this.
Also, that picture makes no sense.
Gotcha. Fixed gear bikes. Skinny jeans. Irony. You know what the worst part about hipster advertising is? It's lazy. To me that's worse than being offensive or passive-aggressive or cruel.
It doesn't risk or commit to anything. If it's not lampooning the same handful of extremely common traits (iPods? Books?!), it levels responsibility on the viewer to define what the ad is actually saying (Hipsters like the Honda Jazz and you should like the Honda Jazz but feel free to think hipsters are losers). It expects you to do what it refuses to do which is make sense of a vague and polarizing word/group/idea and either identify with it or mock it or ideally both. That is obscenely lazy.
Reader Comments (10)
Heymister! Stop being so easily offended and start getting the joke, even if it's on you this time. Man up a little. I especially love "The hipster move" ad :D
I figured it out: It's for the (indulgent) parents of hipsters, the Dr. Frankensteins who created the li'l monsters. Btw, Mister Hipster, I am lazy. I AM lazy. I am LAY-ZEE. Are you offended?
What about the Hipster Grifter? Was that self-identified or was that foisted upon her by Gawker? Technically I give Gawker a little more credibility in terms of identifying hipsters than say Bank of America or FlatRate (Jesus Christ, that ad) plus the fact that she was Asian made it a little more nebulous I think (kind of like how Ken Jeong can get away with more), like we focus more on the delightfulness of her than the fact that she's a lying sociopath and steals people's shit.
Hey mister, maybe these advertisers are playing on the irony of a hipster associating as a hipster for the pure irony of it all. Maybe they're more intuitive and creative than we give them credit for. Or maybe, they're using a horrible term to segregate the young community. Maybe.
advertisers don't do anything for the "pure irony of it all." they're in the business of making money. you think bank of america cares about social commentary?
OMG hahahaha these were all awesome. Flatrate hispter move, omg. Golden! I doubt their customers are hipsters so I don't think they are worried about upsetting them, but they are making the rest of us get a laugh.
agree. played out. lazy. and worst of all - not funny.
The main problem, as you said, is that no one self-identifies as a hipster. This is actually exactly why ad agencies can target them without losing customers. No one thinks they are the person these ads are making fun of, but by targeting a group of people that doesn't exist, everyone also feels left out. No one can look at the BOA ad and say "Oh that's for me". Of course I think the reason that these ads seem so obnoxious is because this joke is played out - every tv show, every blog, every article, every place you could make fun of hipsters - it's already been done, and ad agencies are supposed to be more creative than that.
Great post.
Hey Mister, couple two three things:
#1: All you need to know about the BofA ad is that the woman is Nenah Cherry 2.0, in a buffalo stance, ok?
JIGOLO! Huh . . . sucka?
#2: Hipsters do NOT read Proust. OK? Even if nobody else is reading Proust, I call BS on hipsters reading.
#3: Good point about nobody self-identifying as a hipster, but as another poster commented, doesn't that make them the perfect straw man? I think all you need to know is that ad agencies have caught on to the 'You hate hipsters? I DO TOO!' market segment. But again, I love the assemblage. Always good for a laugh.