Commentary

Join the Flock

In the advertising world, it’s not good to be a sheep. For ad campaigns and consumers, the key is to stand out from the pack, celebrate individualism and avoid conformity at all costs. But the recent trend of agencies and marketers embracing the sheep metaphor seems less than original.

The most high-profile example is Toyota’s “Little Deviants” campaign for the Scion xD, in which the gremlin-esque Deviants reclaim a dreary cityscape from the drab, feckless “Sheeple” — part-human, part-sheep creatures. Created by ATTIK, the campaign was meant to differentiate the Scion from other subcompacts and position it as a hip, urban and edgy car for young buyers.

Separately, online video site Revver is running leaderboard ads showing a green, hipster-ish sheep with sunglasses apart from the flock, with the tag line “Revver is different.” The ads aim to reinforce its particular approach to online video — Revver was one of the first sites to pay contributors a share of revenues from clips.

Then there’s the home page of British agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, showing a single black sheep going in the opposite direction of a flock of white sheep, under the tag line “When the world zigs, zag.” In that case, how about creating a new visual metaphor for flouting mindless conformity?

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