A couple of sites that I visit have frequent ads for mortgage lenders. The ads always have some dancing animation. A clown, Santa, a skeleton, and the newest one, a space alien.
What do dancing space aliens have to do with a mortgage? Nothing, I think. Yet this company continues to pay someone to run their ads. Does the dancing Easter Bunny entice me to click on their link, or even read it? No, it causes me to see if I can reallign the page so that ad doesn’t show.
Do these really work? I suppose it’s similar to the car dealership with the 60 foot tall inflatable gorilla. That one doesn’t work for me either. Has anyone actually gone to a mortgage lenders webpage, because of the dancing Santa?
Probably doesn’t get you to buy the product right away, but the ad worked, you’re here talking about it. But if you were in the market and it caught your eye, you might click on it.
I think the dancing Santa is to catch your eye just long enough to notice the ridiculously low monthly payments!*
[sub]*achieved through the magic of loaning money amortized negatively over 80 years with a 2-year call and adjustable rate that is fixed for the first two months of the mortgage, and is afterward equal to LIBOR plus 2700 basis points[/sub]
The Simpsons as always have something semi-relevant:
Marge: You’ll feel better knowing your money’s in the hands of professionals. Clerk: [in an ape mask] Uk, uk, are you folks ready to go ape? Lisa: Mom… Marge: A professional in an ape mask is still a professional.
Also:
Homer: Max Power, he’s the man who’s name you’d love to touch!
But you mustn’t touch! His name sounds good in your ear, but when you say it, you mustn’t fear!
'Cause his name can be said by anyone!
I notice the Shell Oil television commercial advertisements, wherein they introduce the characters by name as well as the actors playing them. They’re building some kind of premise over an extended period of time, I think.
I hate commercial advertisements, and think there’s a special place in hell for the ones that have some kind of premise to set up. But at least they could set it up quickly, like the theme song for Gilligan’s Island sets up the premise for the series before they’re even into billable time.
The fact that these pinheads are drawing out the process of setting up the premise, in a sort of a meta-meta-offense, makes me insane. So now I drive miles and miles out of my way to find a filling station that isn’t Shell. I can’t bring myself to reward this kind of behavior. It’s bad enough that the entire advertising industry is ethically bankrupt, that they exist specifically to annoy you because it’s part of getting your attention. They don’t have to gloat about it, and if they gloat, it doesn’t have to seem contrived.