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It had to be one of the cheekiest ad campaigns in memory.
Imagine taking an image of the president of the United States and throwing it up on a billboard, in Times Square yet, to hawk overcoats, of all things.
As one would expect, the White House was not amused and basically ordered the offending coat maker, Weatherproof, to take down the billboard. The coat maker, as one would expect, protested, citing the First Amendment. The media pounced on the story, again as one would expect, treating the showdown with far more seriousness than it deserved. Legal experts expounded at length.
Finally, Weatherproof blinked, agreeing to take down the ad, which by then had brought it great heaps of media exposure, all for free of course. That all happened two weeks ago.
But there's more to the story.
Just as the Obama billboard was to come down, one playing on it went up right next to it.
Put up by AMC, the ad shows a character in a very similar setting--we see, as in the Obama ad, the Great Wall of China behind him--in an identical pose, looking quite serious, hands tucked in his coat pockets.
The type in the ad is of the same font and size. In place of "Weatherproof" on the original ad are the words "You got No Proof," the letters all run together, and below that, "Getting Away With It Since 2008."
In place of the tagline "A Leader in Style," the AMC ad has "A Dealer in Style."
The ad is for the show “Breaking Bad,” about a teacher turned drug dealer, and features the show's star, Bryan Cranston, with a gas mask perched on his head of the sort used by drug makers. The reference to 2008 refers to the year the show debuted.
The ad is promoting the show's third season, which premieres March 21.
AMC president Charlie Collier says the ad came about as much from timing as anything. As it happened, AMC was working on an ad campaign for the show's March debut when all the ruckus over the Weatherproof ad first broke.
"We saw that ad and the buzz it was generating and we thought it’d be a nice way to get some heat around the launch of the new season," says Collier. "The show is filled with dark humor, so it’s perfect to do a spoof of the original ad."
The AMC ad, which went up last Friday, is actually larger than the Weatherproof ad, measuring 37 feet by 37 feet, and it's on the same building, 5 Times Square. Says Collier: "We’re very pleased with the adjacency. To have them both in view creates a powerful image."
AMC's marketing team came up with the design of the ad and then created it using different shoots from the show. "The actual execution is completely inspired by the original, then we put our show’s spin on it," says Collier.
The ad will stay up through February but after today it will be up there by itself. Weatherproof has said it plans to take down its ad today.
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