Those madcap Swiss, take 2
I really hadn't intended this to be Crackdown on Swiss Corporate Advertising week, but I can't look this gift horse in the mouth. So Credit Suisse has a full-page ad on the back page of the NY Times national edition's business section. Pastoral scene, foggy golf course, two white guys. Pretty much what you'd expect. Here's the lovely and sedate copy in the upper left-hand corner:
Great, I have no problems there. Standard ad-speak, doesn't ruffle my feathers. Boring as all get-out, but I can live with it.
Then we get to the bottom of the page, and as with yesterday's Hip-Hop Z, I'm baffled. Here it is:
Thinking New Perspectives.
Well, nothing like Swiss attention to detail — at least they put a period at the end of that incomprehensible fragment. Thinking new perspectives? Why does this bother me exponentially more than the boring blue ad copy above? I've stewed over this topic a bit, and I think what I've boiled it down to is parallelism: The boring blue ad copy doesn't trouble me because the two sentences use the same syntax, with the result being that they effectively convey a message, however uninspired the message may be. (And uninspired is apparently no obstacle to registration with the PTO, by the way.) But juxtaposed with "think competition" and "think partnership," "Thinking New Perspectives" is the thing that's not like the other. It sounds like advertising neo-speak generated either by a computer program or by someone with less than a firm grasp of English, which, in turn, gives me concern about the competence of the organization that signed off on this tagline. Okay, that's a bit of overstatement, since who am I to question Swiss banking expertise? Not me, no sirree. It's just that if they are trying to maintain that sedate, restrained and traditional posture in order to attract American clients seeking that kind of security in uncertain times, it'd be nice if they didn't go wild with clumsy sloganeering. As with the Hip-Hop Z, it seems they're just trying too hard. When you've already made clear that your target demographic is white guys playing golf, don't overreach with jargon.
Great, I have no problems there. Standard ad-speak, doesn't ruffle my feathers. Boring as all get-out, but I can live with it.
Then we get to the bottom of the page, and as with yesterday's Hip-Hop Z, I'm baffled. Here it is:
Thinking New Perspectives.
Well, nothing like Swiss attention to detail — at least they put a period at the end of that incomprehensible fragment. Thinking new perspectives? Why does this bother me exponentially more than the boring blue ad copy above? I've stewed over this topic a bit, and I think what I've boiled it down to is parallelism: The boring blue ad copy doesn't trouble me because the two sentences use the same syntax, with the result being that they effectively convey a message, however uninspired the message may be. (And uninspired is apparently no obstacle to registration with the PTO, by the way.) But juxtaposed with "think competition" and "think partnership," "Thinking New Perspectives" is the thing that's not like the other. It sounds like advertising neo-speak generated either by a computer program or by someone with less than a firm grasp of English, which, in turn, gives me concern about the competence of the organization that signed off on this tagline. Okay, that's a bit of overstatement, since who am I to question Swiss banking expertise? Not me, no sirree. It's just that if they are trying to maintain that sedate, restrained and traditional posture in order to attract American clients seeking that kind of security in uncertain times, it'd be nice if they didn't go wild with clumsy sloganeering. As with the Hip-Hop Z, it seems they're just trying too hard. When you've already made clear that your target demographic is white guys playing golf, don't overreach with jargon.
There's a reason Switzerland was neutral in WWII.
WHy aren't you picking on our own porfession? Let me give you some examples of tag lines trademarked by some of Canada's biggest firms:
Fasken Martineau: "Beyond Results"
Blakes: "Business is Our Signature." (Really? Can I use it on my VISA?)
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Believe me, I snicker at law firms' taglines all the time. I don't, however, want to bite a referral hand that might feed me. Of course you might then wonder why I'm offering any criticism at all, but (a) I gotta be me and (b) I'm not ready to make nice. I apparently feel a song coming on . . .
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Levy Law: Rainbows, Unicorns and Happy Thoughts.
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Perish the thought. You know me better than that.
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