In Ad World, Fate Favors the Bold

The image features a woman at a dingy bar, holding herself with a sprinkle of arrogance and uncertain poise.

She's the polar opposite of typically busty spokesmodels such as the Morganettes presented on Diageo's(DEO Quote - Cramer on DEO - Stock Picks) Captain Morgan Web site.

"It's refreshing to see a liquor eschew the Maxim school of advertising where only the lowest body-fat percentile babes are worthy of hawking booze," says Andrew Saklas, senior art director at Lanmark Group.

In St. Germain's magazine ads, the image of the woman repeated as a postcard is a mysterious relief from boring cardstock inserts and the perfect companion piece to the poster ads.

Dare to Take Control

Your customers aren't stupid, and if your ads treat them as such you're just like the schmuck that spends $30 thousand photographing the scantily-clad models we're sick of seeing.

And here is the lesson more small businesses ought to learn: St. Germain spent a bit more on its advertising than it needed in order to take total visual and emotional control with its magazine ads.

Rather than leaving things to chance, St. Germain bought up the full page ad that would sit behind its postcard in magazines.

And instead of reiterating the contents of the postcard, they filled the page with a lovely Belle Époque era wallpaper -- printed with gold ink no less.

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