Commercials Reviewed

Mr. Peanut

2005-04-08T10:58:00.000-04:00

Commercial: The ... Represents
Product: Peanuts
Company: Planters

Mr. Peanut wears a lot of accessories, we've seen them for years, decades even. This commercial explains what each item means. The hat, the cane, the monocle each stand for great taste. Suddenly, as the voice over says "the gloves" the scene changes to a colorful sunset in some beautiful, remote, isolated location and the narrator's words describe the image with as much artistic beauty. Quite the surprise! Then the shoes come along, which again stand for great taste, and the commercial ends with the Planters pitch. The commercial is both surprising and entertaining. It makes you pause a moment in whatever you are thinking or doing to go "Huh? What did he just say?", which then has you paying attention to the TV for the end of the commercial. Great tactic.

But then they had to go mess it up and change the gloves to standing for nothing, "Mr. Peanut just likes gloves". That just doesn't have the same impact. It's bland, not surprising, and the word "nothing" makes the mind think "oh okay, this isn't important". The revised commercial doesn't grab the audience at all.

Mind Bender

2005-04-02T13:09:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Sheep Boys
Product: Blended Flavors
Company: Skittles

WHAT is the point of this commercial?! It's well acted. Pretty funny when you just accept and not question. But I mean really. How does human heads on sheep eating off a stump equate to Skittles? Other than they talk about how good new blended flavor Skittles are.

Just a very random commercial. "Blend the Rainbow. Taste the Rainbow." I guess it's blending humans with sheep is like blending orange with mango. Not that I have any idea why sheep!

Am I confused?

2005-03-29T23:44:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Bottled Ship
Product: Beer
Company: Corona?

A sailboat appears to float into an empty glass bottle. As the camera zooms out we see a man sitting on a beach next to a woman and a small table of beers. He's holding up an empty beer bottle horizontally to the water which gives the illusion of a ship in a bottle.

Simple, cute, pretty, and a nice break from all the commercials that yell at you or talk too much.

But whatever happened to the tag line "Change your whole latitude"? That was clever and catchy. "Miles away from ordinary" is just so plain, and falls flat in comparison. It is the same company that used "Change your whole latitude", right?

Everyman is the Commonman

2005-03-24T23:55:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Couch Father
Product: Adoption
Company: AdoptUSKids

The father is asleep on the couch, the child is sitting next to him watching TV. "You Light Up My Life" plays in the background as the child, not at all with an expression that matches the song, looks at the father who is snoring with mouth open. The child then looks back at the TV, and mimicks the father's position on the couch. The tag line is: "You don't have to be a hero to be a hero. Just being there makes all the difference."

And then there's the radio one where the son says "there's this girl I kindof like" and the father says all he needs to do is impress her, a proceeds to tell him to grunt a lot around her. The tag line is: "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. Just being there makes all the difference."

There are other TV and radio commercials too. The message for each is punctuated with either a humorous or a sappy-sweet common real life situation. I think the commercials help portray adoption as a means to a normal family, and say you don't have to be special or do anything different to raise a child you didn't biologically create. Hopefully they have helped more adults think about adoption as an option.

You can see all the different ads currently running here.

Listen to the Fine Print

2005-03-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Fatal Medicinal
Product: Enbrel
Company: Multiple

Rheumatoid arthritis is the problem, Enbrel is the solution. That's this commercial's message, sent across with soft colors and music, believable people, and the sympathetic yet "you can take your life back" schtick. We've all heard and seen this type of commercial. The newest approved pill that can help or solve a specific problem. In this case the commercial itself is fine, done well enough.

Have you ever paid attention to the monotone face-paced voice that lists off the side effects? These types of commercials are required by law to list out side effects that occurred in trials. "... side effects may include ... blah blah blah," it speeds so that unless you are paying close attention you miss what's being said, yet it drones so you loose interest and won't pay attention. A good tactic when the message is "Serious side effects, some fatal, include...".

Fatal?! Why in the world would anyone want to take something that might kill them to ease joint pain, or any non-threatening condition?

When Change is Bad

2005-03-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Lift Off
Product: Some new SUV
Company: I don't know

The commercial is the one where it starts off looking like a NASA video where a rocket takes off from a launch pad. The rocket passes by the camera from nose towards engines, until a bumper sticker comes into view on the side of the rocket which says "My other vehicle is a VXQJ 478 Somejunk". Very cool concept! Totally hits home with Science/Sci-Fi geeks like me. Except the name of the darn car is SO complex it doesn't have a chance to stick in the mind.

You know what? I *loved* the commercial during the Superbowl, especially when it then panned up to the rocket's cockpit where an astronaut in full gear is sitting. The astronaut flips back his gold visor to reveal he is the Virgin Atlantic guy (that's Richard Branson). It was a brilliantly sweet and simple commercial: a visual twist on the well known "my other vehicle is..." paired with an instantly recognizable company face. Of course that was also the first problem! I associated the commercial with Virgin Atlantic and not the car company (which I still don't know!). But the commercial worked for Virgin Atlantic, as later I went to the website shown in the commercial (www.boldlygo.com) and discovered I could sign up for a Virgin Atlantic promotion, which not only did I do but I also passed the site along to family and friends I believed would be interested.

Now I've seen the commercial running without Richard Branson and the website address. Not so bad if those were the end of the changes. But they aren't. The bigger problem is that a lot of voice over has been added. Probably as an attempt to better promote the SUV. But instead I now find the commercial a jumble of long messages all hitting me at once, and the result is that none of them stick. I have no idea which car company is it, which SUV it is, and no idea why this SUV is any different or better than any other!

On a side note: I actually would not have recognized Richard Branson had it not been for commercials years ago when he ran that reality TV show.

"Shorts!"

2005-03-08T15:29:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Shorts!
Product: Bermuda Shorts
Company: Old Navy
The real song? "Fame"

Very colorful. Everyone's pretty and skinny and smiling. And the song is some easily recognizable one that's been butchered to fit the commercial. It's the now typical Old Navy song (and dance) type stuff with bold colors and over sized emotions and messages. Makes me want to scream "No!" at the point in the song where everyone yells.

And yet, somehow, what would normally be annoying to anyone is just enough fun that you let the annoying aspects slide and like the commercial. Perhaps it's the combination of so much annoying stuff that it passes through ridiculous to amusing? Perhaps it's simply so filled with happy colors and upbeatness without being sappy or "sugar high" that you can't help but be swept along? I don't know why it works, but it does.

Nick @ Nite

2005-03-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Hello Again
Product: Nick @ Nite
Company: Nickelodeon

The "Hello Again" commercial. I just love the music! And the mad special effects skills are fun to watch. Before they had the Murphy Brown clips in it, the actions/dancing of the people in the clips matched up perfectly to the music. For the most part they still do, so it's still fun. I tend to get up and dance to it, or sing along!

But the one pair of words the commercial uses is interesting to think about too. "Hello Again." Kinda reminds me of the "Welcome Home" tag line CBS used for a while in the 90s, except not unsettling like that (as that one made it sound like tv was home and where you should be). This tag line is friendly and casual, and does almost make N@N sound like a friend you've come to visit for a bit. Nice.

The commercial is simple, fun, and resonates with those of the station's typical viewers who are like me. No real marketing advantage I can see, as the only people it reaches are those who already watch, but it's a great way to do the station id bit without being typical or boring about it. Very good job guys.

I wanna be like her

2005-03-03T15:34:00.000-05:00

Commercial: Wedding Day Game
Product: Beer
Company: I don't know

Have you seen that commercial where a Groom and his groomsmen are huddled in a coat closet around a TV with drinks watching a football game? The Bride, with bouquet in hand and bridesmaids and others behind her, open the door to this spectacle. Clearly the wedding is ready to go, people have been wondering where the Groom and company are, and the Bride and crew have been looking for them. All the men look up with surprise and fear. The Bride's reaction? She looks around at all the men, looks at the screen, and as she pushes her way to the Groom she asks "What's the score?" The commercial then cuts to the product. When it comes back to the wedding party, the Bride is sitting on the Groom's lap with a drink in hand watching the game saying "How's our defense?". One of the groomsmen turns to the Groom at this moment and says "You're a lucky man." The Groom nods with a smile.

Yeah. :)

Of course, I know despite my best efforts or genuine interest, I'd not be happy at holding up my wedding. Just means I have to be sure NOT to schedule my wedding when there's a game on.

On a side note: since I have no idea which company this commercial is supposed to be promoting, someone wasted a lot of company money. But hey, we got a cool 30 seconds of entertainment out of it!

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So this is the post which caused me to create this blog. I started thinking about all sorts of commercials I like. Some of which I had no clue what they were for, which means the commercials were completely useless (for the company that created them) other than to entertain me for a few seconds. Some of which made me want the product. And some of which made me NOT want the product. I plan to post my thoughts on various commercials as I remember them (and have the time) or as I see new ones and decide they are worthy of posting about.

We shall see if I manage to follow through on this!