That being said, here is a list of a few advertising clichés you should try to avoid when formulating your big idea. If you can find a unique twist on any of these, more power to you.
“Introducing…”
You have a new product. You want to give it a coming-out party to your audience. It has a world of new features, is dramatically better than the competition, and screams for advertising that notices these things. Instead, we get “Introducing the Newest Advance in Accounting Software.” Agencies love “Introducing.” In fact, brazil cell phone database they love it too much. It’s old, it’s cliché, and you can be sure that there will always be another ad with the word “Introducing” at the head of it in the same publication or site you’re advertising in.
“The Best (Product Here) I’ve Ever Used!” [Celebrity/Industry Spokesman Here]
Make no mistake: endorsement ads are important. For some businesses, they drive sales better than any feature-based advertisement possibly can. The problem with most endorsement ads is they feature endorsers known only by industry old-timers and, in a country where youth is omnipotent, using minor to sub-minor celebrities to hawk your wares is about as exciting and substantial as Ed Wood hawking Bela Lugosi long past his prime. Good celebrity endorsements require a solid public relations agency, a budget, and time. If you are unwilling to invest, you should look into another type of advertisement.
On the other hand, if you can find a cost-effective celebrity who fits your niche perfectly and can come across as a surprising choice (like William Shatner for Priceline), you might have something most celebrity endorsements don’t—that unique twist that can turn a cliché on its head.
“Does Your Product or Service Act Like This?”
These types of ads usually show the ugly side of a product or service. For example, “Does your call center connect?” might show a slovenly phone operator filing her nails while her entire switchboard lights up. The subhead and body copy will usually explain the benefits of your call service and how it is different from this exaggerated outcome, but most viewers will be left with a negative feeling, either about the service industry itself or a misplaced belief that your service fits into this category as well (the result, usually, of viewers not reading the full ad—which most of them won’t). A way to counter this kind of negative ad is to cut your design in two and make the negative much smaller in scale to the positive.
Comparisons
Their product, our product. Notice the difference? Comparison campaigns have been around forever, from taste tests to Bounty paper towels. They are the go-to idea when you’ve exhausted your first few inspired ideas and hit a wall. A high mark for this kind of campaign was Rolling Stone magazine’s first foray into advertising: “Perception, Reality.” Directed at their readers (but also at their advertisers) this campaign contrasted the percep-tion of who their audience was and the reality of what they actually really were (for example, the hippie of old was, today, a well-off businessman). Although there is always room for a new twist on the comparison campaign (which Geico proved recently with their customer “taste test” commercials), nine times out of ten these ads tell you what you already know.