Shockvertising - can advertising provoke?

Shockvertising is advertising that deliberately provokes and shocks in order to stand out from the clutter of ordinary, predictable advertising messages. Well-thought-out advertising can remain in people’s memories for years, but poorly estimated advertising can lead to a real image crisis, public apologies, and a tangible loss of customer trust.

Shockvertising, i.e. a provocation in advertising

Shockvertising, also known as shocking advertising, takes on taboo topics and difficult social issues that people usually prefer to avoid in order to deliberately provoke a strong reaction from the audience. As a result, the brand becomes more memorable – usually because it shocks, sparks controversy, or evokes anxiety. That’s because such advertising relies on very strong emotions, has a much wider range of maneuverability than ordinary product advertising – but for the same reason it is also easier to cross the line of good taste.

A company or organization that consciously chooses this tactic can gain a lot – fame that simply cannot be bought in any other way – but it also risks very seriously its long-standing brand reputation. A shocking campaign must be very well thought out, especially today when a negative reaction to an advertisement can spread on social media faster than the campaign itself.

Shocking advertising - the mechanism of action

Shocking advertising always leaves a lasting impression – that is its greatest and most obvious strength. Its actual effectiveness, however, depends on how well the brand understands its audience and how realistically, without excessive optimism, it assesses their reaction before the campaign even goes to print.

One of the sectors where shocking advertising often yields good, measurable results are non-governmental organizations. Showing a difficult social problem in a thoughtful, deeply moving way can effectively prompt the audience to reassess something they previously considered the norm. A state of psychological tension arises between what the audience previously thought about the world and what they have just seen – and this tension generates motivation to act: donating money, changing a habit, or at least giving deeper thought.

Shockvertising in Poland and around the world

Polish advertising history knows several loud examples of campaigns that went beyond the boundaries of good taste and ended with a real reaction from the public and industry organizations. A good example of how easily one can go wrong with the reaction of the audience is the Tiger energy drink advertising campaign from August 1, 2017. The brand published an image online commemorating the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, which – according to many audience members and organizations representing war veterans – ridiculed that event. The matter was taken up by the Advertising Council, the Polish self-regulatory body for the advertising industry. In its decision No. ZO 54/17 of September 7, 2017, the Presiding Panel found that the advertisement „violates the standards of Article 2(1) and Article 4 of the Code of Advertising Ethics” – that is, the principles regarding the social responsibility of advertising and good manners.

The beverage manufacturer apologized and – as reported by rp.pl in an article dated August 9, 2017 – declared that it would donate half a million zlotys to help the surviving insurgents as part of the „Help for the Insurgents” fundraising campaign organized by the World Association of Soldiers of the Home Army. This example clearly shows that even quick apologies and gestures of good will no longer undo the very fact of violating industry standards or the publicity that the matter has managed to gain in the media.

Importantly, the advertising itself only ran for a very short time – but that did not diminish the scale of the reaction. The matter reached national media outlets, was commented on by combatant organizations, and the decision on a response (apologies and donations) was made quickly before the Advertising Council had even had time to issue a formal resolution. This shows that in practice, a company must be prepared to respond to a reputational crisis much more quickly than the official proceedings of a sectoral self-regulatory body take place.

How to prepare for a shocking campaign?

Before a company decides on anything more daring and risky than standard advertising, it is worth honestly answering three basic questions:

1. What is the proper goal of the campaign? If the only reason to resort to shockvertising is the hope of a viral effect, it’s worth reconsidering – once the message starts spreading, there’s no longer any chance of pressing the „back” button.
2. What recognition of the target audience preceded the campaign? It is worth checking beforehand what the people in the target group are writing and talking about on the internet regarding issues related to the brand, in order to identify what might be perceived as harmful and what as relevant and moving.
3. What could be the consequences if something goes wrong? The Tiger case shows that even a short, one-time publication can trigger a reaction from industry organizations, the media, and customers for many weeks.

It is also a good, proven practice to show the finished project to people outside the campaign team – other employees of the company, and preferably someone from the outside – before the material is finally published. The perspective of someone who is not emotionally involved in the project often catches risks that the campaign creators no longer see.

- what studies preceded the campaign? You have to remember that shockvertising is sure to arouse emotions in your audience. With a high degree of probability, you can predict that it will not leave them indifferent to what you want to show them. The most important thing is that your strategy has the desired effect and does not discourage current, and probably future customers from your products or services. Play detective. Read what they write about Your audiencewhat conversations they have online about your brand issues. This will give you an insight into what could be harmful or what could be harmful attract positive attention. You can also conduct a survey on a selected group of your recipients and find out how they view your newest idea;

Can a shocking advertisement shock too much?

Yes, and the example of Tiger very well illustrates this. To avoid a similar, costly mistake, it is worth dedicating a considerable amount of time to a thorough assessment of potential erroneous interpretations of the campaign before it even goes into publication: will the message be too disturbing or outright offensive to a specific audience, especially when it directly refers to historical events or personal, human tragedies?.

The advertising market today is definitely more challenging than it used to be – the competition for the attention of the audience is very fierce, and brands are increasingly turning to new, bolder forms of communication with their customers. However, sometimes the desire to stand out is too great, and the message is too shocking or provocative for a specific group of recipients. Earlier assessment of the consequences is much cheaper than later apologies and repairing the brand’s image.

Shockvertising step by step – how to assess the risk before publishing

Before any bold project ultimately makes it to publication, it is worth going through a few simple, concrete steps of risk assessment:

1. State directly who the given topic may concern personally. If the campaign refers to a disease, tragedy, historical event, or a social group, check to see if there are any people in your audience who are directly affected by this topic.
2. Ask what changes will occur in the receiver's mind after seeing this advertisement. If the answer is „nothing, except that they remember the brand”, it is worth considering a milder form of communication.
3. Check out similar campaigns from the past. The history of advertising has many examples of campaigns on similar topics – it is worth checking which ones succeeded and which ended in a crisis, and why.
4. Prepare a scenario for a negative reaction. Who is responsible for communication if the matter reaches the media? How quickly can the company react before the situation escalates?
5. Decide whether the risk is worth the expected result. If the goal can be achieved with a milder means as well, then it is usually safer to choose that milder option.

This evaluation process does not eliminate risk completely and completely – shockvertising by its very definition presupposes a conscious balance at the edge. However, it significantly reduces the chance that the company will be completely surprised by the reaction it could have expected if it had asked all those questions in a thorough manner beforehand.

Shockvertising and other forms of bold advertising

It is worth clearly distinguishing shockvertising from other, much less risky forms of standing out in advertising. Not every bold campaign needs to deliberately shock in order to effectively attract the attention of the audience.

A company that wants to stand out does not necessarily have to choose the riskiest option on this list. Often, well-thought-out humor or a timely response to a current event can achieve a similar effect of brand recall with significantly less risk of a crisis in image.

Shockvertising and the ethics and psychology of advertising

Shockvertising is the extreme, most risky variant of a much broader phenomenon known as the conscious manipulation of the emotions of the audience in advertising. The mechanisms that make a provocative message stand out partially overlap with the rules of social influence described by Robert Cialdini – for example, the rule of unavailability or social proof work more strongly when the topic evokes strong emotions. We describe the boundary between a bold, acceptable provocation and a message that actually harms a specific group of people in more detail in the article about ethics of advertising and why it is worth following it.

It is also worth remembering that not every bold campaign has to balance on the edge of good taste in order to be remembered – a good idea and a precise fulfillment of the expectations of the audience are enough, as we write in the text about the launch of a product with a guarantee of success. This is a good alternative for companies that want to stand out in the market but do not want to take the risk associated with provocative messaging.

Shockvertising and image risk – how Commplace helps

Before a company decides on a bold, provocative campaign, it is worth having a plan in place in case the audience’s reaction takes a wrong, unexpected direction. At Commplace we help assess this risk earlier, even at the planning stage of the campaign, and if the situation requires it – we also conduct it. crisis management, That is, a quick and thoughtful response to a situation in which the campaign triggered an unplanned, negative wave of comments in the media and on social media.

Monitoring of reactions to the campaign and indicators such as the number of mentions and the volume of comments are all visible in one place in the cockpit. Commwork®AI – thanks to this, the company reacts to the first signs of a problem before it grows into a crisis, and not only when the topic reaches the national media.

Sources: Advertising Council, Resolution No. ZO 54/17 on Tiger’s online advertising „Spreading what was”, 7.09.2017; rp.pl, „Tiger’s producer apologizes and donates PLN 500,000 to help the living survivors”, 9.08.2017.