Who Approved These

This will be a new weekly post. There are great commercials on television, but some of the ad agencies are failing to deliver the goods. Creating an entertaining thirty second spot for a product is great, but entertainment is not the purpose of advertising; the point of a commercial is to sell a product. Allow me to point out the “bad ads!”

Waste of Money #1:

The first spot which failed to sell the product is for a new car concept. The commercial is creative and innovative. It starts with a gas-powered toothbrush, followed by different examples of a world in which everything is gas-powered. Every time I see the commercial, I find it to be entertaining and thought provoking, but there is one major problem, I can never remember what is being sold.

This Sunday, the commercial aired during TEBOW TIME. I sat in the living room with several other people who had seen the spot previously. We remembered that it was a car commercial, but we couldn’t remember which car. (I saw the commercial at least seven times!) We all attempted to guess the car; it was either a Chevy Volt, a Nissan Leaf, some Honda hybrid, or a Prius. I guessed the Leaf, and I was quite disappointed when a Chevy Volt was shown at the gas pump. My brother was the winner, or so we thought.

It turned out, I was right. The commercial was for an electricity-powered Nissan Leaf. What a horrible ad. There was too much focus on the creativity, and no focus on the actual car. In fact, the car was only shown for a couple seconds, at the end. We actually came to the conclusion that the Chevy Volt was a better purchase since you can fill it with gas in case you run out of electricity. The ad agency should probably rethink placing one of the top competitors in the commercial.

I get the fact that the idea is to remove our dependency on gas, but reality has to set in; there are not enough electricity outlets for the Leaf. What happens if you are on the highway and you run out of electricity? You’ll probably want to have a backup gas tank. (I don’t even want to talk about the electricity bill!)

I do not want a Nissan Leaf. Anyone who buys one is an idiot; you’re not helping the environment. You are simply adding a major inconvenience to your life.

Waste of Money #2:

The next advertisement is for a Volkswagen. I would say which model, but I don’t remember. (If you’re wondering, that’s a bad thing!) The commercial is designed to sell the vehicle’s clear HD audio system. It’s probably my favorite commercial, but again, the purpose is not to entertain; the object is to sell the product.

The commercial shows several people singing the lyrics to Elton John’s famous song; Rocket Man. Each actor thinks he or she knows the correct words, but they are all way off. The words are, “burning out his fuse up here alone.” The people say, “I’m burning out this useless telephone, my hair is gone, all alone, cheap cologne, motor-home.” (I laugh every time!)

Finally, there is a man singing while driving and he has a woman in the passenger seat. He sings the wrong lyrics and she corrects him. This is a great way to end the commercial, if you are selling the fact that the woman is a better listener than the man. The commercial should have ended with the man and woman singing their own incorrect versions of the song, and finally correcting themselves after hearing the crystal clear lyrics over the car’s audio system.

I do not want whatever model of Volkswagen that is being sold in the commercial. This ad did a better job of placing the product on display, but they failed to leave a lasting memory of the product. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say, “I need a car with crystal clear audio,” I wouldn’t have a dollar!

Waste of Money #3:

The final review for this week is for an Infiniti. The commercial fails to sell the product. In fact, the ad does a great job of helping to sell a BMW. There are several different versions. Basically, someone decided that snowballs are cool. (Clearly, it was not someone with a high level of intelligence!)

In one version, the driver of the Infiniti rolls a snowball down a hill and races it to the bottom. The driver of the BMW reaches their place of employment first and occupies the final parking space. The snowball grows as it rolls down the hill and crushes the BMW, removing it from the space. The Infiniti driver parks in the newly unoccupied space.

From this ad, I take away several facts. The BMW will get you to work faster. Both the BMW and the Infiniti handle exceptionally well in the snow. The drivers of Infiniti sedans are sore losers who resort to dirty tactics. (Are you sold, yet?)

In another version, the BMW driver beats the Infiniti driver to a red light. The commercial shows that both cars are great on the wet road. The BMW driver revs his engine and causes an avalanche to cover his car, thus allowing for the Infiniti to speed off in victory.

These commercials may have some entertainment value, but I do not want to buy an Infiniti. I don’t want to become a sore loser who has to fight dirty in order to out dual BMW drivers. This is a horrible idea. Never make the main concept of your advertisement, “buy our product; you’ll need to cheat to beat our competitor!” Do yourselves a favor and buy the BMW!

I will pick out some more commercials for next week’s installment, but before I end this post, I want to talk about the commercial I hate the most. It’s actually a great ad, but I can’t stand it. I love Coke and the “lesser cola” crossed the line when they created an ad in which the famed Coke polar bear chooses a can of “lesser cola” over Coke. The first time I saw the ad, a tear rolled down my cheek; I refuse to watch it. (I don’t know how people can drink that crap!)

Speaking of Bears, I hope everyone enjoyed TEBOW TIME!!!

@PeteTeix617

Who Approved These 2