These boots were made for walking… all the way to Dundee
August 18th, 2005I know adverts are generally infruriating, but the one I saw last night during Lost took the biscuit.
(Aside - Lost is great and fab, but is anyone else here a little disturbed by the plot holes? Like the fact they shot and killed a polar bear, but then forget about this highly unusual turn of events by the next episode? Or the fact that Kate happily wanders around with a loaded gun prominently tucked in the waistband of her trousers all day and Dr. Jack doesn’t notice? There’s loads of them… whether it genuinely is full of howlers, or I’ve been concentrating too much on watching it and am spotting them more than I normall would, I don’t know…)
Anyway, this advert was for the University of Dundee, as it’s now clearing season (I presume it was only shown in Scotland). The advert is a slickly-shot series of shots of pairs of shoes, all of which “belong” to someone; various famous people are namechecked alongside them. The first two (slippers representing Albert Einstein, high heels for Audrey Hepburn) aren’t too controversial, but then the following ones (amongst them, Martin Luther King, Mary Seacole and Emmeline Pankhurst - the latter’s shoes lying in the shadow of a set of railings) really brought the bile to the top of my throat. The closing line is “Are you up to stepping in their shoes? Then come to Dundee!” (or some such bollocks to that effect).
It is possible that they are operating under the delusion that these people attended Dundee (especially ironic when many of them didn’t even attend university, full stop), but it’s far more likely that this is a simple case of cold-blooded cashing-in on the names of great people. It’s especially galling in this case as it’s coming from a university (and no, this isn’t just some smug Edinbugger looking down on Dundee; I’d be appalled if any university, big or small, did the same), who should really know better than to take credit for others’ achievements. At the same time, they’re unlikely to get into the same kind of shit that a corporation would if it did so. Oh well.
Update: I’ve just realised what it reminded me of, which was of course the Apple “Think Different” campaign, which was just as cold-blooded and cynical. Although, I think, Apple at least went to the extent of getting hold of the image rights first…