Our discussions over the past week were all about edgy marketing campaigns. We saw our fair share of ads that really shouldn’t have been made, some that made us question the necessity of the product and some that made us sit back and applaud the creators.

Wet nappy? There’s an app for that

No really. Pampers has just announced its venture into the connected things market with its line of smart nappies. These nappies will have a sensor on the front that connects to a corresponding app. No longer will parents have to touch nappies to see if they’re wet, or wait for the tearful cries of their babies, now a notification will let them know exactly when it’s time for a change.

But wait you ask, doesn’t Pampers already have a nappy with the blue line that does that exact same thing? Well yes, it does—but that one doesn’t connect to your smartphone. The Lumi nappies go a step further and are actually designed to monitor babies’ sleeping patterns. We expect many tech-savvy parents to jump on this latest craze, but a number of security concerns have already been raised. Is it wise to share your baby’s name, sex, date of birth and a 24-hour archive of video with Pampers and its parent companies? How will that information be used? The smart nappy seems like a risky novelty.

It wasn’t me: but we wish this ad was

You probably don’t see much advertising from the Middle East if you’re based in the UK, and that’s a shame because the marketers out there are producing some fantastic stuff. This latest ad from Emirates NBD and Dubai Police caught our attention on social media and is already one of our favourites of the year.

Phishing is a pretty difficult subject to get customers thinking about, despite how prevalent these attacks are. So rather than using its ad space to deliver the usual strait-laced warnings about the do’s and don’ts of keeping your account and identity safe, Emirates NBD decided to sing about it. Specifically, to the tune of Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me”. It really is one of the best banking ads we’ve seen in a long time, and what’s more it delivers really important security advice. This is a masterclass in delivering an important message in a way that’s engaging to customers, and even though Shaggy may be old news, we think this ad will be around for a while.

Small, medium or ‘mom jeans’?

In today’s world where body positivity and diversity are being championed, releasing a set of plates that labels portion sizes in jeans sizes is not a wise move. And advertising them in your Instagram story is today’s version of social suicide. The brand responsible for this faux pas: Macy’s.

Credit where it’s due, Macy’s were quick to respond to the discussions online and have removed the plates from its stores. But they were a little too quick—responding to the first tweet about the plates. We can’t help but wonder if this was all just one big marketing stunt? Was Macy’s really so blind to the offense these plates would cause among its consumers? Or where these plates selected to start an online debate and get people talking about Macy’s on social media? They say any press is good press after all, and the company that manufacturers the plates has already reported that its online order volume tripled after the incident.

And in other news…

This one’s not about marketing, but we couldn’t help but share it. Hackers aren’t always after your money, for this poor guy they simply wanted to ruin his job prospects.

Posted by John on 23 July 2019