Vested Interests

You may have noticed that there was an "all-Lego" ad break the other night that featured remakes of some mostly unremarkable commercials [with the exception of Vinnie for the BHF] made entirely of those little toy bricks from Denmark.

What you may have failed to notice is that this stunt was supposed to be promoting the forthcoming Lego movie.

Yes, it was mentioned in the press release that all the trade publications recycled without comment or interpretation. But away from all the industry second screen chatter and gossip, did the general public really make the link or was this just seen as some PR noise for Lego?

The cult of remaking iconic film scenes from Lego is nothing new. Yet, the idea of giving a few ads the same treatment and running them together in the same commercial break is being heralded as "an inspired and truly innovative Media First" as ground-breaking and heroic as the moon landing.

Now, I can't deny that this activity hasn't captured any attention.

But like a sparrow's fart, I'd wager that this isn't going to last for very long.

I'm sure Warner Bros are delighted with their revolutionary media activity but was this stunt really in their best interests?

Did this idea really make people interested and excited about seeing the Lego movie?

Was this idea really the best idea to do that job?

Was filling an entire commercial break the best way to invest that money?

Or was it pursued because it was a newsworthy "Media First" that would make a great case history and win awards?

We've spoken before of the corrupting influence of other things like peer recognition, fame and awards getting in the way of agencies doing the right thing for their clients.

There's a hell of a lot of it about.

It seems that now more than ever that there's a massive disconnect between what clients ultimately need and what agencies ultimately want to give to them.

Just because you can package something up as being pioneering and original doesn't automatically mean it's any good.

The hidden agendas and vested interests that exist behind the magic curtain at a lot of agencies often come to light only when clients wake up to realise that bugger all difference has been made to the bottom line.

And only then does the penny drop that agencies are much better at selling themselves than they are at selling their clients' products.