Yeah, I know, I’m about to rant about advertising again. Sorry.
The new Mastercard Moments “Pebble” campaign bothers me more than any other ad in recent memory. I saw it first as a print spot (see it here), then discovered it had a TV incarnation as well.
The print ad shows a lush landscape, with a timeline superimposed. The timeline describes geological activity over millenia that led to a particular pebble sitting beside a lake. A dad has just skipped the pebble across the water, impressing his son. The clincher: “Not knowing what goes into a moment: priceless.”
The campaign is by McCann Worldgroup (warning: their website is really poorly designed). They helpfully outline the reasoning behind the campaign here:
“Show MasterCard Moments as the enabler to making having priceless experiences easier, without you having to worry about a thing… Unbeknown to him is everything that gone into making that [moment] happen for him.”
Oooh I hate it so much. The phrasing they use is just so obnoxious. “Not knowing what goes into a moment”, i.e. being ignorant. In this case, ignorance of the natural world and the scale on which it operates, of the massive interconnectedness of the global eco-system, of the many complex contingencies that led to life playing out as it did. The less you know about this stuff, the better.
They could have phrased it differently. “Not needing to know”, say. “Having all the hard work done for you”. There are lots of other ways to keep the same general solution to the brief without saying ignorance is the neatest thing. We didn’t get those ways, though, we got “ignorance is priceless”, straight up. The fact that none of the copywriters or editors and Mastercard approvals people thought this was an issue just goes to show how little people think about ensuring they are really saying what they mean. Or perhaps that’s being charitable, and they actually mean to deride an awareness of the bigger picture.
Argh, it’s such a horrible, horrible spot. While I’m upset about it, consider: this ignorance of geological scale and interconnectedness, this fundamentally self-centred view of the world, is exactly the same affliction that is leading us to massively overexploit the natural world and underprepare for the consequences. The dude who is ignorant of all these things is surely driving a big ol’ Humvee, right?
Also: this priceless moment is all about a dad showing off to his son. That’s the one! Show that kid you’re way better than he is at skipping stones! Proving to him that you are still the man! Surely an experience to be cherished universally.
Y’know, if Dad wasn’t ignorant of all that history, maybe he could explain it to his son. Blow the kid’s mind a bit about how big time is and how small we are in comparison and how amazing it is that time shakes out a whole lot of chances into one specific result.
I know I’d find that a whole lot more priceless than watching my dad skip a stone across the water.
7 thoughts on “Ignorance is Priceless”
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“Show MasterCard Moments as the enabler to making having priceless experiences easier, without you having to worry about a thing…”
Expect the huge interest that it costs ya to have a credit card.
I confess I have gotten far too good at mentally screening ads out and ignoring them to notice stuff like this.
I think I would quite like to see your father skip a stone across a lake actually Morgue 😉
The thing that struck me about that ad was the total detachment of everything in it, as far as I could tell, from credit cards. I have both a credit and a debit card, and I’m pretty sure I skipped more rocks in rivers, with or without children, before I got them than I do now…
I didn’t know about this ad, but now that I do, I’m thoroughly annoyed. I’ve worked for companies who do this same kind of thing. They want to make sure their internal processes are invisible to the customer. The idea that you can get more customers by making their lives easier is cool and all but I’ve always had the suspicion that it’s more about CONTROLLING customers than actually helping them. “Let us do your thinking for you.” Nasty business, the whole thing. Makes me want to punch MasterCard in the face. Does MasterCard have a face? Because I now want to punch it. 😉
Thank you for that MOrg. I’ve seen that ad once and had no idea what it was about. Mind you I don’t concentrate on ads. Ugghh. Flick a link to this blog to McCann Worldgroup!
[this comment got spam-eaten for some reason but I rescued the text – morgue]
I didn’t know about this ad, but now that I do, I’m thoroughly annoyed. I’ve worked for companies who do this same kind of thing. They want to make sure their internal processes are invisible to the customer. The idea that you can get more customers by making their lives easier is cool and all but I’ve always had the suspicion that it’s more about CONTROLLING customers than actually helping them. “Let us do your thinking for you.” Nasty business, the whole thing. Makes me want to punch MasterCard in the face. Does MasterCard have a face? Because I now want to punch it. 😉