What is Disruptive Advertising?

In the current scenario of advertising on the internet, along with advertising in other media like TV, Newspapers and outdoor, a consumer is exposed to hundreds of advertisements every day. This ranges from the boring radio jingle, or the virtually invisible newspaper ad, which we constantly ignore, or the un-missable TV ads, at the beginning of which, we switch channels.

We are becoming increasingly numb to conventional advertising approaches. So in such a scenario, how does the advertiser catch the attention of the viewers/consumers? The answer lies in disruption. Disruptive advertising refers to the use of ideas that are inspiring, refreshing, or daring ideas that defy rules.

Here are some examples which show disruptive advertising at work:

Disruptive advertising, sometimes uses questionable methods, but the impact of such disruption will stay on the otherwise ad-cluttered minds of the viewers.

An advertising agency in Australia, came up with a disgusting idea to get attention for their client in print. When the guys flipped through the pages of FHM magazine, they found two pages stuck together, in a rather disgusting manner at a point where a lingerie model was featured.

If they had not thrown the magazine out of disgust, and actually pried open the pages, they were treated to an ad from Repromed fertility clinic, and an invitation to take an online quiz to check if they qualified as sperm donors. The tagline being "Don't waste your sperm"

Disruptive advertising receives a mixed response from people. Some think of it as effective, and some think that it is not very effective, while some might think that it is too invasive. No matter what people think, in this age of increasing impressions, disruptive advertising is a powerful way of catching the attention of the target audience and increasing eyeball views.

This question was asked by one of our readers, Kirtana Suri.