Best. Commercial. Ever

October 15th, 2009 by kmitsui

October 3rd, 2009

This is off the wall, but I had to share this with you all. Below is a description of a TV commercial that I really like versus ones I hate. They’re all advertising the same product, and it’s not one that I would ever buy – so why do I care so much? I guess being in marketing for the past 8 years or so has really made me take notice of the way things are advertised. What can we learn from these ads from a marketing standpoint, and how can we apply them to our own companies’ products?

The product: Just For Men (hair dye)

The good commercial: Ex-athletes Keith Hernandez and Walt Frazier pretend to be sportscasters rating football player Emmitt Smith’s gray hair. He uses the product and then scores a touchdown. Trash-talking dialogue (”Your ’stache is trash! Your beard is weird!”) gives the audience a humorous look at the product and shows that even famous athletes have some insecurities about getting older, but that’s ok.

The bad commercial #1: A man with gray hair is told by his daughter that he will get a promotion at work… if he dyes his hair to look younger. He then gets the job.

The bad commercial #2: A man with gray hair is told by his two young daughters that he will be ‘a nice catch’ for some woman, if he dyes his hair. He then gets a date.

What’s the difference? To the casual observer it seems like the premise is the same – the man looks old (and it’s implied he feels old also) and then uses the hair dye to look younger and then has some sort of success. However – when dealing with a sensitive topic, it’s best to either keep it factual, or make it funny – leaving the sappy rhetoric at the door. Men who might buy this product are probably insulted by the patronizing ‘real life’ scenarios (besides, if he’s interviewing for a VP position, they’d probably WANT someone who looks distinguished rather than young!). I know if I had kids who told me I was too old to get a job or a date I would be really annoyed!

From the marketing side, it’s better to let the customer put himself in Emmitt Smith’s shoes than some random guy who feel insecure about getting older. What’s my point? It’s that those of us in marketing have to know our customers, and if we’re going to sell to their insecurities we should at least entertain them as part of the bargain! Ok, enough of my little rant…. but I can’t be the only one who notices this stuff – what’s your most or least favorite form of advertising?

Get Lit,