You realize there isn’t a licensing board for ad critics. Pretty much anyone who can type and watch TV (not necessarily simultaneously) gets a chance these days to weigh in on the worthiness of an ad campaign.   So it’s nice to see somebody take the time and effort to actually write about advertising in a way that takes into account the business situation, brand history, and the pop culture territory at play.   Seth Stevenson over at Slate did just that today in his ‘Advertising Deconstructed’ column about the new Dunkin’ Donuts campaign.

Now, of course we like it because of the grade we got. But check out Seth’s insightfullness at getting to the core of the strategic challenge. Here’s how he sets it up:

John Gilbert, Dunkin’ Donuts’ vice president of marketing, has been quoted as saying, “We’re not about music and WiFi and couches and fireplaces.” What they’re about is low prices, quick service, and unpretentious reliability.

So, how do you capture those qualities in an ad without creating an image so boring and unsexy that it turns off customers?

That, my friends, is it. Unlike a certain famous coffee brand that trades on status-conscious connoisseurship, Dunkin’ is straightforward and unassuming. But not — we hope — generic and boring. Seth compares the challenge to that faced by Target, which at its undifferentiated core is a discount retailer. But Target, says Seth, “recontextualizes the products it sells inside a colorful, bouncy world of the campaign’s own invention.”

Bingo.

Here’s his grade, in full, of what he thinks of the work and the tagline:

Grade: A. The ads are very watchable, and I think the campaign nails the brand image Dunkin’ is striving for. Down-to-earth, value-oriented, but still fun and just a tiny bit hip. As for that new slogan, America Runs on Dunkin’? Given the calorie counts on some of those donuts and flavored coffee items, it might be more accurate to go with America Waddles on Dunkin’. But I guess that doesn’t scan quite as well.