How true. People who know me well understand that I have a very uneasy relationship with marketing generally. Although it is clearly impossible, I try to see as little advertising as I can, and to ignore the bulk of what I see. I have become quite good at not seeing things.
One campaign by a watch company, a few years ago, did strike me as a clear cut above most, as you might expect. It featured in black-and-white, or even occasionally sepia, photographs of people who were clearly meant to be understood as beautiful, successful and affluent; they were always accompanied by a beautiful child of the same gender, and were embarking on some dream lifestyle experience. Driving a speedboat out of a Mediterranean harbour, being at the controls of a racing yacht, saddling a beautiful horse, boarding the overnight first class Wagon-Lit from Paris to Nice. The strapline was something about never actually owning the watch, but merely looking after it for the next generation. You know the one.
Which brings me onto...
And so they should be. And I do believe that watch companies worth their salt, who aspire to the luxury tag, should be pushing this aspect of their product much harder than some of them do.
To paraphrase another famous campaign (I changed the product): A Watch Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas.
And not just for a couple of years, for that matter.
My opinion, but I can see I’m not alone. I’ll shut up now.