brent phillips

In addition to seeing  the Pats go ‘all the way’ this year, I had another dream about enjoying some really innovative and creative commercials. Sadly, neither happened.  To summarize, I was genuinely bothered by a lack of context, cliché concepts (talking babies? talking animals? “Thriller” - really?), and the general lack of taste with the hope of being briefly memorable. Humor is great and I certainly think some ‘edge’ is good because it does get attention. But edge and humor at the expense of dialing up brand or product value is careless to me. Especially at $3MM a pop.  Why? As I think through the amount of noise we have in our daily lives - radio, print, television, the web, mobile devices, work - advertisements should be a lot more clear and direct with the customer. What do you want me to know about your product? Why should I care? And don’t make me think too hard to connect any dots you throw at me. As a ‘for instance’ I still have the image of a pasty, white guy with jumper cables on his nipples burned into my brain. The problem? I don’t have a clue about the brand he so gracefully represented. Don’t distract me to gain my favor.

I brought this up yesterday to some very capable creative folks who reminded me that there is a lot more at stake for these advertisers than simply connecting with their audience during the game. Certainly, the ‘best’ commercials will generate a ton of buzz - furthering awareness. They also reminded me that ads need to be seen several times before consumers retain the message. All fair, I suppose. But at the end of the day, nothing engaged me - and I don’t expect that they will if I see them again. And aside from Will Farrell’s ‘bud lite, suck one’ comment, I’m in the dark about who had ads and which ads went with which brands. Maybe I’m the anomaly?

However, coincidentally, I caught Peter Kim’s blog tonight - he’s in marketing/advertising research - and he nailed this issue quite well. Its worth a read if you have a few minutes - he’s more of an authority on these things than I am.  

So…anyone care to share their favorite ad?  Can you remember one? Where are my jumper cables…