Ok, so in one of the newspapers at my college, there was a 1/4 page ad recently that has us all baffled. Please, if anyone knows anything about this ad, come forward and reveal its mysteries.
I’ll try to do it justice, but I’m not sure if I can really capture the total absense of understanding I felt upon reading it. The top half of the advertisement is black with white block lettering. It says: “Nelly has one.” I am immediately intrigued. By not pointing out what Nelly has, I am led deeper into the realms of the advertisement. Whatever it is, it must be something truly astounding. I mean… Nelly!
Below that is black lettering on white. In relatively large print:
“join the band. become a cpa.”
oh. A cpa. How… mathematical.
In smaller print: “Listen up! Today’s best career riff is C-P-A… [description of a CPA]… CPAs keep the beat of business and finance… Talk to your advisor…” Talk to my advisor like a fox! You bet I will. My only question is “what? I mean. how does… why do they think that… why should Nelly…”. Searching in vain for interrogatives, I manage to come up with the following:
Questions:
Nelly has one… what, exactly? He has a CPA? Does that mean he has one working for him, or that he has earned his certification? Or does the “one” refer to the band that they mention below?
“join the band. become a cpa.” What?
C-P-A. Is this a reference to one of Nelly’s songs? I’ve heard a few on the radio, but this doesn’t come to mind.
Why Nelly? Did some whitebread marketing guy think: “Hmm. CPAs have such a square image. We need someone to pep us up a bit. I know, a pseudo-rapper!” Maybe he asked his 14-year-old daughter who the most “pimpin’ homie” in the “rave scene” was.
At the end of the ad, there’s some contact information and the seal of the CPAs (in California at least). Throughout the ad, the copy uses language to equate CPAs to music (eg. “the tune of a great career”).
We are all totally mystified about the reasoning behind this advertisement, and, really, how they expect to convince anyone who idolizes Nelly to enter a profession known for its lack of excitement. Would anyone call this number? (apart from me, of course; I’m going to call tomorrow just to see if they can shed any light on this question. I’ll let you know.)
Eh, an attempt to glamourise an unglamourous profession and to attract young blood. It caught your attention, so in that sense it worked – and I suppose it did get across the fact that not every client is the same.
Will it actually attract people? Dunno about that.
“You don’t have a chance in Hell of becoming rich and famous like Nelly, so become a certified public accountant to have a slim chance of maybe getting close enough to the rich and famous to actually speak to them over the phone once or twice a year!”
It’s a logical progression from the “buy this car, bed this woman” kind of ad–“become a CPA, hang with Nelly.” If the first makes sense to you, the second should, too.
I was in the waiting room, hanging out before an appointment, and picked up a local free paper. There was a quarter-page ad in it that featured a picture of a young girl (about 9 years old), doing a classic ballet pose in a tutu and slippers and holding a wand. At the top of the ad was a URL for realestatefairy.com.
The headline was in a very childish typeface-- you know, crooked, rounded letters, and the headline, I swear to God, said, Take advantage of me. My clients do.
There was some small copy beneath the ad, something about how the real estate fairy will make your dream home come true, etc. But still. Someone really should have talked to this woman before she submitted the ad.
Anyway, it’s a terrible ad, even if it did get attention. For a real laugh, check out some of the recruiting pamphlets the big firms put out. A few years back Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers) had one with lots of black & white pictures of young accountants wearing dark sunglasses in strange outdoor settings. It seemed pretty obvious to me that they were trying to define themselves as the sexiest firm.
BTW, I feel comfortable sayng that the ad meant that Nelly has a CPA that works for him, not that he has gone through all of the requirements and obtained his certification.
Since the OP mentions a California society, here’s what it takes to be lisenced in CA:
Shah Jehan, that was my take on it, too. Ah, I remember the days of college recruiting. Once I realized the Big 6 didn’t want me, I then realized that LA was a hotbed of the film industry, and maybe…just maybe I could become an accountant at a studio and actually make the final rolling credits!!!
Instead, I’m just a budget analyst. sigh Well, probably if I’d met the experience requirement and TRULY become a CPA, I’d be hangin’ with the rap stars and using phrases like “bling bling” or something.
Who’s to say Nelly implies Nelly the wrapper? There are other famous Nellies… such as Nelly Furtado, a recently-popular singer from BC. Maybe they’re just trying to identify some generic person with a hip name, and the thunk-tanks came up with “Nelly” as the cognomen of hip.
Shah: it doesn’t say Nelly is one, it says he has one. Big difference.
Stypticus: applying Google’s razor, it looks like Nelly is most likely a rapper, Nelly Furtado, some kind of sports reviewer whose website I can’t see from work because the porn barrier won’t let it through, or something to do with Swiss Aviation. I’m guessing the rapper.
