How's this for a headline that makes you wanna Just Do It?
(click ad to read copy)Pearl Izumi, owned by Nautilus, is a 50-year-old Japanese company best known for its competition biking apparel. Running shoe-wise, they are small-time in the USA. They recently began a print campaign in Runner's World tagged with the website wearenotjoggers.com. By bashing "joggers" in what is the monthly bible for runners, they are certainly preaching to the choir. The macabre headline stops you in your tracks, and and the even more macabre copy keeps you there. It's the anti-Run Easy. But does it inspire trial, or just simply make you feel better about being a "runner?" I believe the latter. But, if I didn't yet know the Pearl Izumi name, I know it now. I guess that's something. Only in a deeply-read niche magazine like RW could the company get away with placing an ad with no logo, and such small type on their sign-off. (this a low rez scan of the ad; the copy is much clearer in the magazine.)
update: commenter says campaign is by my friends at the factory, cp+b.
(tip from Flannery McKenna at icontent.tv. ad jpg grabbed from a cnbc blurb about the campaign.)
previously in shoe ads:
1. Kenneth Cole loses yet another battle in War on Words.
2. ALDO's rhetorical question.
3. Reebok running shoes help prevent puking.
posted by copyranter @ 2:40 PM
16 Comments:
The real question I have is which agnecy did Pearl Izumi/Nautilus use? Can you find this out?
Could I? Yes. Will I? No. (Sorry. I'm not really what you'd call a servicey kinda guy.)
"Running shoe-wise, they all small-time in the USA."
I like how, when discussing a Japanese company, you unconsciously switch the 'r' and 'l' sound.
THANK YOU ANON TYPO FAIRY,
I'm neither a runner nor familiar with the company ... but I stopped and read all the copy.
I hate running, but I love this ad.
I hate running, but I love this ad.
That's their logo at the end of the copy block.
I believe Nike also started by advertising in the back of Runner's World, so they're in good company.
Saw on a blog that the agency that did the Campaign was Crispin, Porter and Bogusky
Watch all the necrophiliacs go out and buy themselves a pair now.
I'm a runner and I suspect that many, if not most, runners know the name Pearl Izumi- they often sell biking crap in the same stores you get running gear in, so it's not unfamiliar.
Curious about the effectiveness of the campaign though. It makes the shoe seem cool. But there are enough sites that review running shoes now that if the shoe is shit, runners will know it and stay away. And with a new brand like PI, they'll be checking the web.
That's the real Digital Revolution- the ability of customers to use the web to call "bullshit" on your advertising.
Truly messed up. But better than Run Easy. Matter o' fact, ANYTHING is better than Run Easy.
I actually ripped this one of my Runner's World (shuddup) to show to my parents last time I went home. I was dumbfounded.
The ad clearly plays to the Japanese cultural melee, where your 'civic duty' is above everything else. Who cares about the unpleasantness of discovering a dead body? It's the higher social calling, the possibility of finding someone who is being missed, that matters.
*Sigh*
In Japan, its common for people to go to the forest and parks to commit suicide.
So the part about joggers being the ones to find dead bodies makes sense... if you live in japan.
Okay, so admittedly I'm behind in my copyranter reading and late with this comment but nonetheless here goes: Gosh, that's a clever headline. Where have I heard that before? Oh, I remember now: "I'm not into jogging...because joggers are always the ones that find the dead body. You never find a dead body sitting at home eating ice cream and watching porn, do you?" - Dave Attell, "Skanks for the Memories" CD released 2003
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