Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Lawyers Continue To Abuse Laws Of Nature.


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In its continuing bid to out-animal metaphor those Bingham McCutchen zebras and gorillas and Zuckerman Spaeder's lions and bearded dragons, the law firm of Day Pitney has followed up their ostrich (or is it an emu?) ad with a cheesy cheetah communiqué.
Somebody please explain to me—in addition to passing the bar exam, is a zoology degree a prerequisite before one can practice law? How else to explain the preponderance of goofy wild kingdom law ads, day-in and day-out, in the Wall Street Journal? LAWYERS—there are scores of other metaphoric sources to tap—write me! I'll give you a shiny, non-mammal campaign for a reasonable price! Separate yourself from the competition! (update: "pack" would've been a better last word in that sentence)

12 Comments:

Blogger Middle Name: Stanley said...

Yeah, I'm confused. I thought all lawyers were snakes.

3:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

“Yeah, I'm confused. I thought all lawyers were snakes.”

When things gets slimy...

4:15 PM  
Blogger llcooljessie said...

I understand they're hoping to work a pun with their "DAY" bit... but shouldn't the copy back it up with some talk of urgency?

And how come they avoided the "change your spots" and "head in the sand" clichés? I mean, go for the gusto people...

4:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When things get desperate during concepting...

what a difference a safe, worn out idea makes.

5:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's amazing how lost creatives and clients can be.

When you step back and ask yourself about this kind of advertising, do they really think the target is going to say, "Get me that law firm with the animal ads! I like the way they think!"

Lots of people kidding themselves here.

9:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ranter:

no, it wouldn't have. "pack" was the obvious choice. competition WAS the better choice. it's the difference between lightning, and the lightning bug, something daypitney will never understand, which is how these horrible advertisements even came to see the light of, and may God forgive me. . . .day.


fondly,



bad evil naughty zoot

12:00 PM  
Blogger gc said...

i know "cheesy cheetah communique" has a nice ring to it, but that's a leopard (or, possibly, a jaguar).
sorry to nitpick your audacious attempt at alliteration.

1:30 PM  
Blogger copyranter said...

Take your word for it, Dr. Dolittle. I try not to try to hard, alliteration-wise, with my five-minute posts.

1:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The design firm that did the Zuckerman Spaeder campaign, that is.

1:46 PM  
Blogger Jason said...

I'm going to with emu on this one. An ostrich would have a lighter head feathers—emus are darker, uglier.

8:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

actually, as a lawyer who reads this blog, i can tell you that any law firm actually at the top of the league doesnt think any advertising is going to get it clients (sorry folks). clients come because of the talent you have. ads are, at the most, an afterthought (as these demonstrate).

1:24 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

They should have used a lion or tiger, because I also thought it was a cheetah. My thought-flow was, "When things get dangerous ... our laywers run very fast?"

3:57 PM  

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