Product Recalls

This months issue of Personal Computer World magazine has a copy of Windows XP SP2 attached to it – not unlike most of the other magazines this month. But more interesting to me is the inclusion of a four page advertisement that lets users know what the service pack includes.
I say “advertisement”, but in reality it’s quite an informational piece, to the extent that each page has the word “advertisement” printed on top of it, in case you thought that it was Personal Computer World editorial. This is obviously done to differentiate from normal advertising, but there’s also the issue that the Microsoft logo is not used to any great extent. Could it be because SP2 is largely about fixing security issues, with only a few other improvements to shout about?
It’s the same thing with product recall notices from High Street stores. You regularly see notices from supermarkets in stark small black and white ads that advise you to return the product to their stores for a full refund or to throw the food away. All very worthy and correct. Yet the logo probably doesn’t appear, and these days, most normal ads would appear in colour – these appear in black and white. Are we supposed to think it’s more important and worthwhile reading this way? But surely ad agencies have tested their normal creative to within an inch of its life, and know well that they’re noticed. Small black and white ads are far more easily missed.
It’s a strange dichotemy really – I think they genuinely want to inform the public about these problems, but don’t want to associate it with their company image.


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