Reading through a fellow classmates Tatiana Mawani‘s blog post about Nutella faking its health content in its commercials triggered my memory of a vaguely discussed topic when this news had been exposed; I decided to read further on the topic, and read more articles that confirmed and supported Tatiana’s post (Here and here). This provoked my interest in finding out what other lies advertising agencies and companies have fed consumers through their various marketing campaigns and schemes, only to find out the honest truth – this wasn’t an irregular occurrence.

Sketcher’s shoes doesn’t help people who wear them lose weight, Classmates.com cannot actually help you find your classmates, L’oreal face cream doesn’t help “facelift” (or Lancome or Olay for that matter), Gas isn’t “cleaner” if it’s crystal clear, Hoover’s “free trips to america” were free but non-existent, Rice Krispies doesn’t protect children from immunity, Listerine is not equivalent to floss, fast food actually doesn’t look like what it does on advertisements (shocking, right?), or the older campaigns that states cigarettes have great health benefits; the list goes on, and on, and on.

It may be common knowledge for people to only take advertisements with a grain of salt, and that advertising agencies aren’t the most honest people in the world. However, to this day,  it’s still a common occurrence for consumers and target audiences to fall for the many subtle and seemingly insignificant “facts” planted in advertisements. We are constantly reminded not to believe everything an ad says. Is this what companies must do in order to attract attention –  to brand its products with false, pleasing facts and benefits in order to lure consumers into buying the good or service? Ultimately, it’s a scary thought to realize; if we can’t really trust the millions of advertisements we are faced with each day, what ARE we supposed to trust?

With the rapidly growing world of social media, it is no surprise that companies have sought after ways to incorporate the world of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, @mentions and #hashtags into their marketing strategies. These campaigns usually aim to target the increasing population of Generation Y – the generation of the internet, social media, and Facebook lifestyles, where a computer or a smart phone is always found in the hands of the youth.

Lowe’s, an American chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores, were one of the few companies to successfully attract attention through the means of apps and current social media trends. Through one of the fastest growing mobile app “Vine”, along side the trending usage of hashtags, they created the marketing campaign #LowesFixInSix. Using Vine, an app that helps users create 6 second videos that could be easily shared to various internet platforms, Lowe’s made countless creative 6 second home improvement videos using stop motion animation, and used the hashtag #LowesFixInSix to promote their videos.

With a trending concept of “life hacks” being shared online, #LowesFixInSix catered to that idea quite well. Soon afterwards, these videos not only caught the attention of the press, with countless articles (for example: DDB Canada marketing blog discusses this, here and here) discussing such an inventive campaign, but they also successfully reached their target audience – Generation Y. When one of the most popular canadian marketing agencies, DDB Canada, recognizes and discusses the success and innovation of this marketing campaign on their website blog, you know you’ve done a stellar job advertising the campaign. The hashtags and videos have not only been a popular find on Vine, but it has also reached the some of the largest social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to name a few. Ultimately, #LowesFixInSix has sparked endless discussion over its appliances and ideas, and triggered a spike in its brand recognition worldwide – making its newest marketing campaign the smartest, most innovative and trendiest ones yet.