Welcome back to A Creative Review with James Cooper. Today Coop dives into Cole Haan’s #DontGoHome campaign.

What If You Can’t Go Home?

Whenever a brand interacts with the public, there is an opportunity to get an idea across. It could be a person that opens the door at a store, it could be the back of a receipt. Most obvious is of course advertising.

As you know, I like ads that have ideas in them. I like pieces of communication that advertise an idea, rather than pieces of communication that are advertising ideas. It’s a subtle difference, but brands that ask people to do something or become a part of something are seeing good traction. So, I applaud Cole Haan for trying that here. Though, I’m not exactly sure it works. 

Photo credit: ADstruc

The ‘Don’t Go Home’ hashtag feels a little too negative to me. It feels like ‘Don’t Go Home’ because it’s boring, or you have an abusive partner, or…and this is the bummer for this particular campaign, ‘my apartment is under 10 feet of water and has no power and the streets are looking a little like The Walking Dead.’

Of course there was no way Cole Haan could have predicted Sandy, it’s an unfortunate coincidence, but anyone who lived anywhere near this billboard or the store it’s promoting really didn’t want to go home. And all those nice sparkly sequins that were on the board? Sandy was not impressed by those either.

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That’s all folks! Want to get involved? Send us the best or worst billboards you’ve seen and we’ll choose one every week. Just email coop@adstruc.com.