I agree with you. How is this supposed to improve Civic sales? Although that “Tuesday Is The Best Day Of the Week” song is pretty darn catchy …
On another car-related campaign, how about Toyota and their “Jan” character? The actress has been the face and voice of Toyota commercials for quite some time now, and while she’s certainly attractive, there’s just something about her voice and phrasing that makes me not think good thoughts about Toyota vehicles. Plus, in the latest round of ads, she’s actually working at a Toyota dealership. When you recall one of the first commercials she was in featured her giving a Toyota salesman a lie-detector test (including the question, “Do you find me irresistably attractive?”), having her now work at a dealership just seems all sorts of stalker-ish.
The casino/resort commercial with the people talk-singing Bohemian Rhapsody. I have no idea what I’m supposed to take from that.
In fact, the only message I’ve ever gotten from it is “You’ll be accosted by thugs in the poolside lounge” but I’m fairly confident that’s not what they pitched in the ad meeting.
I kinda do. Southern Comfort isn’t considered good, or classy, and the commercial is basically saying they’re fine with that, just do whatever makes you feel good and ignore the haters. Even though the guy is overweight and hairy, he’s confident enough to wear a Speedo, and in his mind, he’s bad ass…and isn’t that what drinking is all about
Mine is also the State Farm ones. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there - with a hot tub - and the girls from apartment 36 B. The first time I saw this, I’m thinking, wait, they’ll give you random shit…and broads! Just like a genie? I still don’t get the connection between State Farm giving you anything you wish for (including humans), and insurance.
Ugh. In addition to the natural nausea most people feel with that commercial, I also have delirium-induced stress because this ad played CONSTANTLY back in January/February of this year when I was fighting sepsis and hallucinating very bad things. That and the Esurance ads with the twangy guitar music. Both of them still make my stomach knot up a little when I see or hear them.
Their new commercial Meet the Policy is definitely a “what the hell?” All I can think is that their insurance must be overpriced if their top execs are living that kind of multi-billionaire lifestyle. And using the 30 Rock/Dr. Spaceman - Archer/Cyril Figgis actor probably wasn’t a good move either.
Here in the Boston area Legal Seafood (which now has branches elsewhere, so maybe these commercials run in other cities, too) has been running these ads that – if you think about them – are downright creepy.
There’s a commercial for Build-a-Bear workshop where the mom says “When my daughter truly loves something, she puts a star on it.” And we see the little girl, 4 or 5, putting star stickers on everything she owns. Does this happen? Has this child been diagnosed yet? Have the preschool administrators called in the parents for a little conference yet?
Anywhelp, mom takes the kid into the stuff-yer-own place to make herself a bear, and as they emerge, kid sticks a star on the bear. Mom is beside herself with joy, sniffing “I guess I did good.” Is there some kind of distraction therapy for this issue?
I realize that I don’t think like most people, but it seems so obvious that the customers and employees portrayed in a commercial represent the actual customers and employees of that business. If the customers are portrayed as obnoxious dolts, then my thoughts are that I don’t want to be like these people (so avoid the product) and I don’t want to be in a store full of them. If the employees are portrayed as stupid, smug, obnoxious, etc., I don’t want to encounter them.
If a commercial is gross and/or unpleasant (e.g., Febreze), it creates a negative association in my mind and prejudices me against the product.
A while back there was a commercial for some little known brand of yoghurt for which the big sales pitch was that it only had 80 calories. The women in the commercial were so unable to resist the yoghurt that they were tearing it open in the store and slurping it down in a disgusting frenzied manner. Thing is, anyone who will buy a yoghurt just because it has 20 fewer calories (smaller container?) than many yoghurts probably has an eating disorder and is terrified of losing control over food. The commercial has disappeared, and I suspect the product failed.
Sigmagirl, In one version of the Build-A-Bear commercial, the kid puts star stickers on her mom.
Haha. I think it’s supposed to be making fun of the fact that alcohol commercials almost always feature impossibly sexy people. Not that other commercials don’t, but it seems to be very prevalent in booze commercials, at least in my experience. I almost never see a commercial for alcohol without at least one bombshell. An exception would be Maker’s Mark commercials, which basically only show the bottle in a black background.
I like the idea, but at the same time I can’t say I particularly enjoy seeing this commercial.
