Last week in Leeds I saw a pretty cool looking bloke cruising around on his bike wearing shades. Well, he would have looked cool had it not been for the fact that it was a) very overcast and b) raining. There’s a very fine line between (as Eddie Izzard puts it) looking cool and looking like a dickhead.
It’s the same for marketing campaigns, what seems cool to a load of hipsters in some funky marketing office may not be perceived in quite the same way by the shoppers of Wolverhampton. And the difference is a much finer line than some might think. Dumb Ways to Die? Genius. Brad Pitt’s Chanel perfume ad? Not so much.