Communication

What the advertising?

By Terrence Covin ⋅ January 20, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Recently some of us here at Vision Enhanced have been discussing advertising ads that we have been catching on TV.
We won’t name them all as we do not want to put anyone on “Blast” (so to speak).
Some of them we’ve found very funny, witty and on target. Yet there are others, that leave you perplexed, frozen staring at your T.V. screen as your brain physically locks up as it tries to comprehend the “uncomprehending” madness of digital creative filtered through the television set.
Is it something in the air? Are clients becoming so desperate to market or brand their products that common sense is scoffed at during the pitch?

Lets be honest here for a second. How many times must we watch beverage commercials that are centered around people who aren’t even thirsty, or better yet they were missing altogether. I recently saw a commercial just like this. Here was this 6 pack, parading down the isle of a convient store, with no human in sight. Ah, but how gracious the 6 pack moved. It swayed, it bounced, it glided. Never, did you see an actual person in the commercial. It almost appeared as if it was a planet populated by soda bottles. I am however glad that at least Gatorade got it right when it comes to convincing me that I’m thirsty.

We’ve talked about the latest Mini ads as well here. Wow. Ads that never show the car “moving”. How does that happen? Who “ok’d” that? One of the funnest cars on earth to drive stuck in park. If I was that car, I would be highly upset. Hey, hopefully an award will be issued out though on the creative right?

Is this the accepted norm now? How is this possible? Perhaps it is becoming more challenging to re-invent ideas? Perhaps advertising and marketing is becoming less and less about the client? Well we certainly do not have the answer ourselves. Albeit surely someone out there does.

At least we hope so.