So, the "real men of genius" won again. Grand prix.

For the love of all that's holy people, this has got to stop. Clients - buy braver stuff. Creatives - write better stuff - you can brush up on your radio writing skills with our tutorial. Execs - go for the big picture with campaigns and please scratch the list of "words that must be in script" down by at least half.

US creatives stop whining about radio being hard you have 60 frickin' seconds most of the time. Thats ages! Why, when I write radio I'll be lucky if I get twenty seconds, and usually the list of "words that must be included" take 30 seconds to say- and the brands "sound logo" plays for at least 5 seconds, probably ten. I so wish I was kidding.

Else radio will never see another winner than the increasingly annoying "Real men of genius" campaign, formerly known as the "real American heroes" back in the nineties.

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suddenwaffle's picture

I agree. the original campaign, 'Real American Heroes' was brilliant. Whoever came up with that really gets all the credit. But otherwise it's kind of like writing an Economist or Absolut or Time ad. The formula is there, and if you're even half a talented writer, you'd better be able to nail it.

That said, they are still funny, and the new writers did a great job of carrying the torch. But there is one glaring difference between the original campaign and this one that I wonder if anyone else picked up on...that is, the original ads actually 'celebrated' people (albeit in a sarcastic way). Like 'Mr. Footlong Hotdog Inventor.' That was clever, goofy, tongue-in-cheek. The campaign now is just about cheap insults--'Mr. Bad Tupee wearer.' They just sound mean for insult-humor-sake, as if it it were written by an angry frat boy. Now, I'm left with not quite the same feeling I got from the first round of ads and I wonder if it's actually better, or worse. What do you think?

Dabitch's picture

Worse. I felt that shift in tone too. I mean, they actually celebrated Mr Pickled Pigs feet eater, because he's brave and Mr. Underwear Inspector Number 12, because someone has to do it dammit, and they rah-rah'ed Mr. Foot Long Hot Dog Inventer, because while it might be crazy you know you want a foot long hot dog at least once. Yeah!
Oh yeah, by the way the old ones are still collected over here. Gos that was posted six years ago!

garbahnzo's picture

It may be because there was one written about "Discount Airline Pilot" and AirTran Airways (or Jet Blue?) got mad and threatened some sort of action.

malkie66's picture

I reckon the best one is "Mr Nudist Colony Activities Organiser" - the singer. But I agree - they changed the focus and it's not as good as it was.

Dabitch's picture

Who knows how long The Ravyn can afford to keep this up, but they have gone out of their way to host a 56.1MB zipped archive of Real Men of Genius Collection, that's all 86 of the commercials. Go fetch!