Hefty trashes US political ads with ad blocking advertisements
Hefty, known for their storage and disposal products, decided to “clean up” the internet with Havas Chicago, through a digital campaign that removed political ads on the top of news websites. By taking down the political banter, the brand replaced the spots with Hefty ads that say, “This political ad has been trashed thanks to Hefty.”
From November 3rd, Hefty’s ads have run on Fox News, AOL and the Huffington Post Politics page. The campaign ends today.
Hefty also took to social platforms and purchased space on YouTube. For this campaign, the brand created six-second, pre-roll ads based on keyword searches or contextual targeting around political issues. These spots were targeted by location specifically to those living in key swing states, or a state identified by Advertising Age to be where the Trump and Clinton campaigns are spending the most advertising dollars — Florida, Nevada, Colorado, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.
“People hate ads, especially banner ads and pre-roll on videos. Ad blockers exist because people find ads to be so annoying. As a garbage bag brand associated with cleaning up, we thought it would be cool for Hefty to “clean up” the Internet,” said Jason Peterson, CCO, Havas North America.
According to the Marist Poll for the Knights of Columbus, 80% of the people polled were frustrated by the increasingly negative tone of political ads.
“Ads get particularly aggressive and negative around an election – tensions/emotions are high and there’s a lot of trash talking by different candidates,” Peterson said. “People are inundated with these insanely negative political ads, especially in swing states and Hefty is trashing the bad ads before consumers need to see them.”