Concluding our look at the hits and misses during the seminal years of Avis' famous "We Try Harder" campaign. Throughout the initial "We Try Harder" campaign, Avis avoided any mention of who was #1 to their #2 status. Everyone knew who #1 was, of course, and back then, it was almost unheard of for any company to name their competitors. It may also have had something to do with knowing that, with its much larger ad budget, Hertz could squash Avis in any direct competition. This ad, coming late in the campaign, was one of the more obvious, though still veiled, references to their larger rival: If you were watching TV back in the mid 1960s, you'd get the reference. If not, here's a typical Hertz spot from that era. Watch for the visual mnemonic at the end: "I feel all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant," Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is reputed to have said following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Whether Hertz was sleepwalking th...
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