Why would the visual of a family touring the ocean floor, gazing curiously towards the surface through the ceiling windows in their SUV as tropical fish swim overhead, make me want to buy a Jeep Commander?
How would an animated rattlesnake dying at the feet of some ranch-hand convince me that Ford Trucks deserve my consideration? The sad thing is that this ad was released at roughly the same time as a brilliant ad by the same group, one that I have used all too often as an example of what auto advertising should strive to be. That glorious ad explains that the Ford truck has a variable brake controller for trailers, and then shows a real-world situation where that feature would have been useful to the consumer (the truck rounds a corner on a winding mountain road to see that police have stopped traffic due to an accident ahead). Simple, elegant, brilliant.
The latest automaker ad to set me off is the Volvo "Too Safe" ad. A fellow in a suit and some psycho-looking woman in a lab coat attempt to convince us that Volvo's are "too safe" and that people are being mislead into thinking that they can't get hurt because owning a Volvo provide a false sense of security that Volvo owners then think applies to life outside of their cars (as a side-note, I've always joked that Volvo drivers don't pay attention to other cars on the road because they believe their Volvos make them invincible; I had to wonder if one of the creatives behind this ad had that thought in mind, and if so, kudos to you).
How about the Toyota truck campaign showing their truck rolling around in the surf after the tide came in? All the junk falling out of the sky and piling atop (and all around) the truck in the driveway? And the one where the truck is hit by a meteorite? In each case, the truck drives away unscathed, while the fine print tells us "Not a demonstration of the vehicle's capabilities."
So why show it? Why do we care what the truck CAN'T do? I'm not buying it because it CAN'T survive a meteorite impact. I'm not buying it because it CAN'T roll around in the surf. Just show me what the damn thing CAN do, and let me make an intelligent decision about whether or not I want to test drive one. Shouldn't THAT be the point of an automobile advertisement?
If I'm planning to drop $30K on a new truck, I don't need to be entertained by the ads. You need to convince me why your product needs my thoughtful consideration. Unless I already know that I want a Tundra because I've driven one before, I'm certainly not going into a Toyota dealership to plunk down cash without test driving one. What will make me want to test drive a Toyota (or any) truck? Show the truck towing something that it CAN tow! Like a medium-sized boat or a fifth-wheel, NOT a house, and definitely NOT an ice breaker in the Arctic!
Obviously they're not making these ads for me, but they're making them for somebody, and whoever that somebody is should be insulted.
If your legal team says that you have to add a disclaimer to your creative because it is not representing the actual capabilities of the product you are selling, that should be the only clue you need to realize that your advertisement should be trashed.
At least political ads attempt to tell you why you don't want to vote for the "other guy." How about running an ad showing Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski distributing large sums of cash to the poor, followed by a visual of him adding a comma and three zeroes to the state education budget? Hey - as long as you hide the disclaimer somewhere in the ad that says "Simulation only. Not intended to reflect Governor's true intentions," then you've got an ad, at least according to the agencies serving the world's automakers.
Seriously, get a clue. You're trying to communicate to your client's customers and prospective customers as to why they should purchase your client's product. Do you really want to send them the message that they are too - oooh, shiny! Oh, man, what was I just thinking about? Oh well, maybe I should go buy a Toyota... It sure looks cool rolling around in the tide like that!
posted by Anon79 @ 2:04 PM
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