Chaving It Up

22May08

I’ve recently come across a new term at my workplace called “chaving it up”. Chaving it up, or CIUing something is a marketing term for making something looks so bold, obnoxious and garish that you can’t help but notice it and if it’s noticed in the cut-throat world of marketing it’s working.

An example of my CIU skill

This was also shown in action on BBC’s The Apprentice last night as Team Rennaisance and Team Alpha were set the task of making a TV commercial for their own specially branded tissues. While team Rennaisance went for subtlety and class over the hard sell, Team Alpha designed an awful looking box, put together an advert that was cheesier than a Sainsbury’s deli-counter but boy did they ever have a box shot and BOY OH BOY did they ever mention what the product was and does in loud words.

If you don’t want to know that Raef lost, you shouldn’t have read this.

In some respects it was good to see the snobbish attitude and dreams of glory held by Team Rennaisance shattered, but on the other hand it was a bit of shame to see that this is the kind of poor design, patronsing nonsense that sells but the truth of the matter is, is that it does.

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Tags: bad design, Chaving it up, design, marketing, raef, the apprentice