Avis Ads: A Big Branding Mistake 

The Marketing Doctor doesn’t usually find brand insight on the pages of The New York Times opinion section and least of all from academic Stanley Fish –but there is always a first time!!! 
Fish argues that the latest crop of Avis ads (one is posted above) fail because they are too good!  He is right!  Basically each ad tells the story of the car left behind for an Avis rental.  The Avis rental is the “other” car in the relationship and the driver in each commercial is leaving the car he owns in some desolate parking lot to cavort with the rental car!  Creative?  You betcha!  Watchable?  Absolutely!  Good for the Avis brand?  Fuggeaboutit!
Sure, the ads underscore all the great features Avis cars have but the ad storyline about betrayal is very negative.  Fish doesn’t get the branding problems, but points out that you end up feeling for the wrong cars –the cars being left behind!   And you end up not liking and  –here’s the biggest problem, folks— not trusting Avis!    Avis is the “other” woman or “other” man in these commercials –talk about loading your brand with baggage it doesn’t need!  What a huge mistake! 
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen ad agencies sell companies on the wrong idea!  And they’ve done it again with Avis!  Great for the creative awards; rotten for their client!!!  This is where the inmates (the creatives) are running the asylum and the loser is the brand! 
Did anyone give any thought to how this idea might play with the target market?   I think that they might have been trying to get a little of that Cadillac magic (see my post on why the Cadillac Superbowl ads worked here).  Those Cadillac ads were good precisely because while they added a new twist and reached out to a new generation (and gender!) they kept the product front, center and positive!  Sex helped sell those Cadillac ads, but the Avis ads might just be the first time in history sex doesn’t sell! 
Avis could have avoided this problem by thinking brand first!  You’d think that a mature brand would have at least five “brand” points that they know by heart!  I advise clients –both personal and business brands— to always keep a “brand checklist” handy.  It might sound hokey –but believe me it avoids big ticket disasters like this one!  One brand point that would appear on the Avis list is “honest/dependable.”  Now there’s nothing wrong with doing an ad that says “exciting” –afterall, part of the point of this campaign is to show that Avis is now offering drivers all kinds of exotic cars to rent— but if “exciting” undermines “honest/dependable” then the brand is being hurt!  End of story! 
The only choice Avis has now is to bite the bullet and pull the ads as fast as they can!
And, remember, it’s always easier when you keep branding in mind!