Are brands still treating ‘real people’ as a marketing gimmick and should they be braver in embracing the messy reality of consumers' lives?
Aimee’s spot on in Nicola Kemp’s recent article for Creativebrief highlights how brands need to show the real, messy bits of life. She draws on the sublime accuracy of feature films reflecting real life, so much so that you can almost smell the perfume waft through the screen. But shrink down to a TV spot and real life becomes sterilised, over-intellectualised and more often than not - really unreal.
How do you think brands can better reflect real life? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
(A 2-minute read with your breakfast cappuccino)
It’s been two decades since Dove launched its campaign for real beauty, yet in some parts of the marketing industry featuring a ‘real woman’ in an ad campaign is still a creative idea in itself, rather than a statement of fact.
Regardless of gender, stereotypes in marketing abound. A state of play which leaves many consumers neither represented nor respected by brands. The rise of a narrative which warns brands of the perils of being ‘cancelled’ is only adding to the malaise.
Embracing the lived experience of real people in advertising can provide brands with a competitive and creative advantage. While brands must walk a tightrope between aspiration and alienation, embracing the messy reality of consumers' conflicting and at times confusing lives can help drive both empathy and effectiveness.
With this in mind we asked industry leaders if brands are still treating real people as a marketing gimmick and if they should be braver in embracing the messy reality of consumers' lives.
Aimee Luther
MD, The Liberty Guild
I can't help but chuckle at the notion of "REAL PEOPLE" in advertising. The term alone is a marketing ploy, and our industry swings wildly between two extremes when it comes to representation. We either under-represent our Britishness with a bland, pale, straight narrative, or we go overboard with back-to-back adverts crammed full of every conceivable diversity trope.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the latter. If you want to normalise something, you need to shout it from the rooftops.
But there's a trickier point here, one that many brands shy away from. It’s about embracing the messy, chaotic, and frankly sticky truths of life. Full-length films nail this. You can almost smell the set because it’s so damn realistic. Yet when we shrink our lens down to a 30-second commercial, reality is tossed out the window. Everything becomes over-styled, over-propped, and unnaturally clean.
Therefore, it is vital that we embrace messy truth and advise our brand partners to do the same —it's what makes life, and marketing, truly compelling. Remember when red blood replaced that ludicrous blue liquid in ads? Dove ditched retouching (and more recently AI) for real beauty, and the Paralympics never fail to present reality as it is. These examples resonate because they’re authentic, and that’s what people crave.
Read the full article and other industry leaders opinion here.
First published by Creativebrief
Photo by Tyler Casey on Unsplash
