Some Memorable Failures

Your review of the top print ads (“Lingering Scent: Obsession Ads were voted most memorable,” May 24) was notable for its omission of the essential question: Did they sell the product?

If memorability is the key, perhaps it is also a drawback. Has the ad industry ever thought of the possibility that memorable ads discourage purchase of the product?

For example, I no longer buy Johnnie Walker Scotch and make a point of bad mouthing it to my friends due to its memorable and offensive advertising. You bet I remember Calvin Klein ads, but that doesn’t mean I’d ever buy Calvin Klein products. Likewise, I’ll pass on Seagram’s, despite its very memorable but offensive “everything they say is true” ad campaign.

What advertisers and companies fail to understand is that while their ads inform us about the product, they also portray the attitude expected of the buyer. This teaches the public quite well about the respect (or lack of same) businesses have for them. Treating buyers with contempt and insulting their intelligence will make the product memorable indeed, and it will sell the consumer on the competition.

ROBERT H. JACOBS

Los Angeles