Huh?

Please tell me it's not just writers who notice things like this.

If you can't be bothered with the whole ad, I'm talking about the endline: 'We start with solutions, not problems.'

How exactly do they manage that, then? This is the sort of line that kind of sounds right, but is completely meaningless. Gives copywriters a bad name. Boo. Tut. Etc.

I promise to post something glowingly positive very soon.

Comments

[Richard]

That sort of thing makes my head hurt.

[Alicia]

It sounds like they are unwittingly revealing their manipulative selling strategies.

They come up with a product that sounds good, and then invent a problem to convince us all that we just have to buy the silly thing.

A cold is not a major illness that needs countless drugs thrown at it, but for some reason we can be duped into spending loads of money on what's really just paracetamol and caffeine.

I'd much rather have a cup of tea and some olbas oil.

[Richard Holt]

Couldn't agree more, this ad has sent me off on a bit of a rant a couple of times now, much to the bewilderment of the other people in the living room...

®

[Sue]

I don't know, maybe the line refers to chemical solutions - a lot of these products are basically solvents aren't they? Maybe the copywriter responsible was sniffing too much of the stuff.

[Mike Reed]

Good thinking Sue. You're probably right, but as you imply, it still doesn't work. The line has to work both ways or the pun falls down: you simply can't have a solution without a problem. It's like a hill without a valley - famously the one thing not even God can invent. (Or perhaps design.)

And the references are so disparate. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions. We make chemical solutions. (But not problems.)

Oh I don't know. It just winds me up and this is the perfect place to let off the steam. I'm glad other weary souls like Richard agree.

[Rob Mortimer]

Isn't starting with solutions the thing that creates rubbish ads made from prebuilt ideas squeezed into the brand of the day?

[Zwitter]

This is what happens when the MD or an account handler has a 'brilliant idea' and insists on it. Or perhaps the client waters down a fairly goos campaign until it speaks to them rather than their target audience.

'Solutions' are banned in our studio, as is 'carbon footprint'

Perhaps substituting 'illusions' or better still 'delusions' would be more accurate.

[Wills]

Finally someone else thinks that this is a pointless moto! The second half is useless. Why don't the fire brigade go around saying "We put out fires.. we're not arsonists" or the doctors saying "We save lives.. we don't actively kill people"