Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

Commercial Proposition

Friday, October 22nd, 2004

Come election time, Americans get to vote on various propositions for state laws. For example, proposition 72 proposes that it be made mandatory for businesses to provide health insurance for their employees and charge them no more than 20% of the cost.

Various TV commercials paid for by those with vested interests bash out the arguments for and against the propositions. The vote-yes-on-72 commercial has a old woman in an emergency room going on about poor people not having health care. The vote-no-on-72 commercial has a woman apparently running a small restaurant complaining that the proposition will cost her money and possibly put her out of business.

Many of the other proposition commercials follow the same pattern: bleeding heart liberal vs. hard-nosed business person. It seems to me that the hard-nosed-business people are missing a trick. They should use the same kind of emotive imagery as the lefties. For example, the vote-no-to-72 commercial should feature unemployed people crying and talking about how they lost their jobs when their employers couldn’t afford to pay their health insurance. Then people could feel warm and fuzzy about voting to let people spend their money as they wish.

When Things Just Work

Friday, October 24th, 2003

My number one candidate for Rob’s TV advert of the Year Award 2003 until recently was the Honda “isn’t it nice when things just work” masterpiece. The full two minute version is a joy to watch. What makes it work so well is that this isn’t just a random contraption, but each element highlights a feature of the car: the automatic windscreen wipers; the spring loading of a handle; the remote controlled boot closing.

I was convinced it was computer generated because of the part of the sequence in which three tyres roll up a slope. I didn’t believe the story that it took over six hundred takes in a studio to get right (despite this being stated on the Honda web site). However, while searching around for evidence to back up my opinion I found a Snopes article that verified the story and explained the apparent mockery of physical laws:

The sequence where the tyres roll up a slope looks particularly impressive but is very simple. Steiner [head of television at Wieden & Kennedy, the agency responsible for the advert] says that there is a weight [in each] tyre and when the tyre is knocked, the weight is displaced and in an attempt to rebalance itself, the tyre rolls up the slope.

Knowing that the contraption had to be painstakingly assembled out of real car parts makes the advert even more impressive.

It has, however, been displaced from the number one spot, because last night at the cinema I saw the 118 118 spoof. “Isn’t it nice when things just work?” becomes, “Isn’t nice when a directory enquires service just works, 118?” “It is, 118. Very nice indeed.”

This is no rough and ready parody; references to the original abound: From the rotating lollipop in place of the rotating windscreen wipers, to the music, to the squirty water bottle in the face in place of the windscreen washer water. By paying tribute in this way it inherits everything that was good about the Honda ad, with the added bonus that it’s hilarious. No doubt both companies will benefit from the mutual publicity of such a crossover. 118 118 may not be the cheapest directory enquiries service, but their advertising agency deserves every penny!

Feminine What?

Tuesday, August 5th, 2003

Last night I saw a TV advert for a cream to treat, “feminine itching”, which is used by applying it, “to the intimate feminine area”. Talk about beating about the bush. Er, by which I mean, um, why don’t they just say what they mean?

It seems the folks who came up with the name of the product had no such inhibitions: Vaginol.

Update: Speaking of euphemisms, Archsweet provides a link to this wonderful euphemism generator. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just get back to baking the bald-headed dolphin…

Under-what?

Sunday, August 3rd, 2003

A question that lately has been occupying more of my brain cycles than it’s really worth is this: Was the word “underarm” ever used as a noun before the people charged with making the advert for Dove deoderant decided that the phrase, “soft and smooth armpits” wasn’t aesthetically pleasing enough?