How Philips confirmed my preconception about LED and shed a whole new light on its tagline

In 2004 Philips launched the tagline ‘Sense and Simplicity’. I clearly remember that I liked this small phrase straight away – though it wasn’t hard to improve the previous one: ‘Let’s make things better’. Sense and simplicity communicated exactly what I wanted to see in consumer electronics; made by intelligent engineers and translated into a simple product that I can intuitively use. Just like the iPhone; loved for its sense and simplicity. But last weekend I saw a Philips ad that gave sense and simplicity a whole new meaning.

The header of the ad reads: “Ledino. Stylish designed LED lightning”. First I looked at the picture. A man looks intently and seductively at a woman. The woman is wearing a big smile and looks down playfully – as if to say, I know what you want from me, but first I am going to play a little hard to get. Her sexy red high heels are on the floor – already off!

Then my attention was drawn to the white coffee table. It was difficult to see what is on it, because a bright light almost literally blinded me. That must be the ‘Ledino’, I thought. Then I moved to the body copy. A small picture of  the Ledino revealed that it looks like a table lighter – pretty stylish indeed. And the body copy explained that the Ledino embodies a perfect harmony between the quality of light and your taste for design. According to Philips it not only improves your interior, it also saves energy, up to 80%.

Sounds great, but of course I am never going to buy this light. Before seeing this ad, LED light represented two things for me; economical and too bright. Therefore I would only use LED in a room where atmosphere is not very important – let’s say the attic. It was Philips’ task to educate me about this, and convince me that you can use LED lights even if you want to seduce someone on the couch of your flashy apartment. Unfortunately the ad just did the opposite; it confirmed my negative preconception about LED light.

So all in all I do see the ‘sense’ in the Ledino; it saves up to 80% energy. But for me the simplicity now has a whole new meaning; it’s not about the quality of the product, it’s about the simplicity of a consumer that buys an unattractive bright LED light (disguised as design) to save some energy. An enlightening ad after all.

Wouter Boon is brand architect and creative planner at Boon Strategy