Ad Agency Misidentifies Bees in New Ad. Or Does it?
If an agency is lucky enough to be asked to create ads for one of the premiere outdoor gear companies, The Timberland Co., shouldn’t they know the difference between a honeybee and a hornet?
Now I’m no bee expert, but I do know enough to know that in the new TV spots by the U.K-based ad firm, Leagas Delaney, the bees attacking one of the outdoorsman are not hornets, even though the ad shows two bees up close and then a huge swarm coming from a large hornet’s nest hanging in a nearby tree. They are honeybees.
Just to be sure, I had an expert review the ad. Jim Mason, a naturalist with the Great Plains Nature Center, a public institution, in Wichita, KS, confirmed that the bees are honeybees and that the nest is, in fact, a hornet’s nest.
And one other point, honeybees do not typically swarm and attack people.
“That’s a wee bit of screw up on their part,” Mason said.
This reminds me of the time the toilet tissue brand, Quilted Northern, ran an ad that showed a scene of characters knitting away in a homespun scene, but suggested they were quilting to reinforce the soft “quilted” feel of it toilet tissue. They heard about that in a hurry and fixed the ads.
Was this deliberate? I know ads often over blow reality to make a point, as the humorous Timberland spot does, but people do notice these things and might begin to wonder if Timberland wouldn’t be better served if the ads got people buzzing about the subject of the campaign, its Earthkeepers footwear, than about the buzzing bees.
To view the video, click here: https://front.framestore.com/eba947ed-r45462700-9e941
