When you work on the same client day in day out, it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the brand. It becomes all you think, feel and do. All of a sudden, adding an extra blade to a shaver becomes the biggest thing in your life since your 21st birthday party.
The scary thing is how easily it happens. And when it does, you start forgetting that people in the real world don’t actually care about your product as much as you do. Before you know it, you’re presenting ideas to clients involving their brand as a tattoo and they’re nodding profusely as you all enjoy a big sip of your own brand Kool-Aid. Mmm, yummers.
Enter Poise Panty Liners. I literally could not believe my eyes the other day when I saw their new promotion asking women to share their 'LBL' stories online. What’s LBL I hear you ask? No, I did not mistype LOL … I typed LBL, and for those playing at home, LBL stands for 'Light Bladder Leakage'.
Yes, you heard correctly. There is a promotion asking for women to share stories of when they have pissed themselves on the Poise website.
Admittedly I’m often unsure if I am just plain immature and maybe I’ve just gotten this completely wrong, but have I missed something? Did peeing your pants just become a cool thing to talk about? Well if peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis.
Beyond this I am concerned slightly by the ad itself. Poise is a brand that is clearly trying to address a taboo issue and act like a caring supportive friend. Great job there guys, nothing says I understand you and your embarrassing personal issue like a piece of highly Americanised global creative. In the end, I get what they are trying to do, I get that it’s an issue they are trying to normalise but surely asking for this level of sharing is jumping eight steps ahead.
To me, this is the ultimate example of why we need to be reminded regularly that people don’t care about our brands as much as we think they do. It is our jobs to also give our clients a bit of a cold shower every once in a while and remind them that perhaps their position on their brand is just a sample size of themselves.
Of course Poise is not the only brand guilty of this. Comment below and dob-in any other players that have recently floated away in their own brand bubble.