Monday, May 19, 2025
# 211 Blog, Tuesday 20 May 2025.
https://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2025/05/212-boshbash-ad.html
Posted by Denny Hatch
This Creepy-Crawly Cringe-Worthy Super Bowl TV Ad
Cost a Mind-Blowing $17 Million for 60 Seconds of Air Time!
URGENT NOTE: After you have clicked on the link below to see this nutsy-fagan unbelievably grotesque TV Spot, here's how to get back to my blog commentary.
Go to the very top left of your screen and look for these two arrows....
Click on the left arrow above left.
You'll be instantly returned to my blog post.
Thank you! —DH
HERE'S THE LINK TO THE $17 MILLION 60-SECOND AD:
Additional Note: If you want to view the Macho Ad again
one or more times, you can click on the Right Arrow at the
top left and you'll recapture the video. In this mode,
the two arrows act as a toggle switch.
Thank you! —DH
= = = = = =
Super Bowl ads can be drop-deadfascinating. To reach the audience of 126 million viewers on Sunday, 9 February 2025, the base price for advertisers was $16million for 60 seconds of air time — plus an estimated $1 million paid to the ad agencyfor creating and producing the actual spot/commercial. Total tally: $17 million for the 60 seconds you ducked into the john.
The list of advertisers was announced a week before the game. I downloaded 42 advertisers andlinks to their actual ads which I alphabetized. Booking.com was first. I clicked on the link, watched a gaggle of ugly, noisy Muppet puppets (includingMiss Piggy) and jotted down some notes.
The second ad was the above from Bosch USA. It was (and is) unbelievably gross — and the subject of this serious blog post.
The Eight Inviolable Rules of Advertising
Compiled by Denny Hatch Over 60 Years.
Rule #1: “Theonly purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitableaccording to its actual sales.”
—Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising
Rule #2: “Yourjob is to sell, not entertain.”
—Jack Maxson, freelancer, creator/designer of theBrookstone catalog
Rule #3: “If itdoesn’t sell, it’s not creative.”
—Credo of Benton and Bowles, Chicago, in the1930s
Rule #4: “Everytime we get creative we lose money.”
—Ed McCabe, president of BMG Music Club
Rule #5: “Bewareof humor in advertising. People don’t buy from clowns.”
—David Ogilvy
Rule #6: The 7emotional hot buttons that make people buy:
Fear – Greed – Guilt – Anger –Exclusivity – Salvation – Flattery
—Bob Hacker, Axel Anderssen, Denny Hatch
Rule#7: “The prospect doesn’t give a damn about you, yourcompany or your product. All that matters is, ‘What’s In It For Me?’”
—BobHacker
Rule #7a: "Always listen to W-I-I FM."
—Direct Marketing Old Saw
Rule #8: “Always makeit easy to order.”
—Elsworth Howell, CEO, Grolier Enterprises
Meet 56-year-old Aussie Adman David Droga. He started as
a fledgling copywriter at the giant FCB (Foot, Cone & Belding) with 120 offices in 80 countries with 8,000 employees.
“In 1996, he moved to Singapore to become Executive CreativeDirector of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore and Regional CreativeDirector of Saatchi Asia. Droga was promoted to Executive CreativeDirector of Saatchi & Saatchi London in 1999. In2002, Advertising Age awardedDroga the World's Top Creative Director.
“Saatchi & Saatchi London won Global Agency of the Year at the CannesInternational Advertising and both Advertising Age and Adweek named SaatchiAgency of the Year. In 2000, Publicis Groupe acquired Saatchi and in 2004, Drogawas promoted to Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis Network, whichtook him to New York City in 2005.
“Droga founded his own agency, Droga5 in 2006. Thename Droga5 comes from the number-coded laundry tag his mother sewed on hisclothes to help differentiate his clothes from his brothers at boardingschool." —Wikipedia
About Denny Hatch's Marketing Blog.
Asco-founder, co-publisher with my extraordinary wife, Peggy, and as editor ofthe newsletter, WHO'S MAILING WHAT! one of our earliest subscribers wasa true direct mail marketing wizard (and lovely guy) the late Malcolm Decker.He once said to me:
"There are two rules — two rules only — in DirectMarketing:
'Rule #1: Test Everything. Rule #2: See Rule #1.' "
It'sclear to me that David Droga is not — and never was — a classicallytrained marketer. With no reply mechanism, it is impossible for a viewerto contact the advertiser and order product. You want it, you buy it retail? Ergo, no way to measure ROI — Return on Investment. With no ROI, ain't no way to measure the success or failure of an ad. These Super Bowl ads make tons of money for the networks and advertising agencies. Alas, the corporations and their stockholders ponying up cash for these seven-figure entertainment extravaganzas take huge monetary losses. Theyget their jollies off by amusing their friends, families, colleagues, competitors and getting media coverage. I'm reminded of the caption of acartoon where two giant railroad engines in Sweden crashed into each other at full speed: "Dat been one helluva way to run a railroad."
Droga's CV
The Wikipedia entry on David Droga (above) highlights immediate acceptance into thesmarty-pants glitterati and creativity of Mad. Ave.'s Saatchi &Saatchi, Publicis Groupe, Cannes International Advertising Festival, AdvertisingAge, Adweek. In other words, fugedabout thedrudge work and arithmetic of testing — "allowablecost-per-order," "affordable CPM" and"cost-of-goods-sold." Leave the nuts-'n'-bolts and antiquated"rules" such as testing to the old-timer wonks — Max Sackheim, JohnCaples, Harry Scherman, Vic Schwab, John Stevenson, Fred Briesmeister,Bruce Barton, Stan Rapp, Tom Collins, Lester Wunderman, Elsworth Howell,Bob Hacker, Axel Anderssen, Bill Bernbach, Maxwell Dane and David Ogilvy toname a few.
ABizarre Takeaway to Consider
Iwatched this thing over and over trying to get inside David Droga’s head. Whatthe hell was he thinking? Suddenly the final frames popped into my head.
I hadnever heard of Bosch. This $17 million dollar TV ad wasn’t selling anything. Rathermaybe it was bent on making “Bosch” into a kind of weird homonym for “bash.” Peoplein the ad (and watching at home) were bashed all over the place —physically and emotionally.
David Droga Came up with the Homophone/Word Play "Bosch" as "Bash!"
"Brand Recognition?"
No! I'd call it "Brand Wreckognition!"
I invite you to have a look at David Droga's weird Manifesto.
https://droga5.com
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A Riveting Rave Review of Denny Hatch's Masterpiece.
By Oluchi Samuel
10 December 2024
An official OnlineBookClub.org review of Method Marketing by Denny Hatch.
5 out of 5 Stars
Tomake a lot of profit, business owners need to understand and employ marketing. As the name implies, Method Marketing by Denny Hatch is a book that educates readers on method marketing. The author also shares the stories of some people who employed method marketing.
Marketingis the business of acquiring customers and continually thrilling them. Method marketing, on the other hand, is the ability to get inside the heads and under the skin of the people you are marketing your product to. Direct mail is the largest advertising medium, and it is the medium alot of method marketers build their businesses on. The author shared the stories of some marketers with huge businesses. These marketers wereFather Bruce Ritter, Martin Edelston, John Peterman, Bill Bonner, Bob Shnayerson, Curt Strohacker, David Oreck, and William Kennedy. They owned businesses like The Boardroom, J. Peterman Company, Agora Publishing, The Eastwood Company, The Oreck Corporation, and Western Monetary Consultants. He shared their stories, how they started their businesses, and he also dropped points for marketers to pick up from their experiences.
This is a wonderful book with lots of great lessons in marketing. I loved that the author shared some successful marketers' experiences. He used these stories to educate us. He discussed how they started their businesses and some of the mistakes they made along the way. These real-life stories made me understand his lessons quite well. I appreciated them. Readers who are planning on venturing into these businesses could learn a great deal from these stories. The author also exposed me to some businesses I hadn't heard ofbefore, like The Teaching Company, Agora Publishing, Quest/77, and The Oreck Company.
Copywriting is a business venture I have been meaning to start. Luckily for me, I got the opportunity to read this book. The author showed the significance of copywriting and also shared tips on how to write a great copy. It gave me insights and taught me howgood a copy should be written. The story of the First Bank of Troy was one of the stories I loved. The president of the bank, Frank O. Brock, operated a customer-friendly business. He paid personal attention to allhis customers. He would go over lists of customers and call or give personal notes to them at least once a month. As a novice in marketing, Iappreciated the appendix the author added at the end of the book. It saved me a lot of trips to the dictionary.
For all these reasons, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.It is an amazing book that all marketers should read. There was absolutely nothing to dislike. I found one error, showing that it was professionally edited. I recommend it to marketers and people planning on venturing into marketing, as it contains a lot of tips to flourish inmarketing.
METHOD MARKETING
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
You can request a sample
And Read the First 31 Pages FREE.
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