Creative Brief for Ford Motor Company

Product: Ford Mustang.

Objective: To reverse lagging sales.

Target audience: 25- to 35-year-old consumers, split evenly between males and females, college educated, with annual incomes of approximately $40,000. Psychographically, the targeted market is a group known as individualists. They tend not to buy mainstream products. In automobile selection, they place greater emphasis on design elements, distinctiveness, and utility.

Message theme: An automobile is like a fashion accessory. A car is selected because of the statement it makes to others.

1. As an account executive for an advertising agency, discuss the creative brief in terms of completeness of information provided and whether the objective is realistic. What additional information should the Ford Motor Company provide before a creative can begin working on the account?

2. The media planner for the Ford Mustang account suggests a media plan consisting of cable television, print advertising, Internet ads, and network advertising on Fox shows The OC, House, 24, The Simpsons, and King of the Hill. Evaluate this media plan in light of the creative brief's objectives. Can these shows reach the target audience?
What information does a creative and the account executive want from the media planner before starting work on actual commercials?

3. From the viewpoint of the creative assigned to this account, do the creative brief and the media plan (see Question 2) contain sufficient information to design a series of advertisements? What, if any, additional information is necessary?

4. Using the information provided in the creative brief, prepare a magazine advertisement. Which magazines might match the target audience?

Ethics & Regulation

5. When does an ad becomes false or misleading?

6. What is the primary function of the National Advertising Review Board?