A few recent commercials have struck me as not only very entertaining, but also down right strange. Each of the below commercials begin in a way that is totally irrelevant to the advertised product and draw you in (or at least me) by making you guess what in the world this could be an ad for. While I appreciate these types of commercials for their entertainment value and ability to create free impressions (YouTube --Ragu - 1.6 million views, Southern Comfort .26 million views) which leads to the products (or brands) being top for the consumer, is in being top-of-mind at the shelf worth the messages each of these commercials put off? While Ragu seems to be positioning itself as a comfort food for children, the mom is the purchaser and they just made this mom look pretty irresponsible ( i.e."Mom's who put their children in stressful positions choose Ragu"). Then the Southern Comfort ad is just all kinds of odd, I've always thought of this as a staple American brand just a few pegs down in "American-ness" to Jack Daniels, and this commercial shows an overweight, over-tanned, mustachio'ed, speedo wearing, yet extremely confident European (assumption) sipping on Southern Comfort. While I love the commercial and the humor in it, its a strange direction for an American whiskey product first produced in 1874.
To answer the question of whether or not there's value in these types of pseudo-shock ads, personally I think yes because eventually the specifics of the ad peel away in your memory and you are left only remembering Ragu or Southern Comfort made you smile.
Enjoy:
The 1st ad provides makes no sense. It does portray an irresponsible parent. But to some children who like spaghetti, it may make up for the fact that the boy couldn't find his parents! I probably will not remember this ad.
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd ad is memorable because it left me wondering "what the heck is he doing?". He looks funny to me, so I just wanted to keep watching. It did look like he was enjoying himself, so the tagline at the end was fitting. It won't influence me to buy Southern Comfort because it's nasty to me.
I agree that the Ragu ad was totally unrelated to sauce. There is another Ragu ad which I have seen recently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgtRtZulAo) which also does not give me a clear image of what the brand stands for. The idea is the "long day of childhood," but in reality the parent is the one cooking and choosing which sauce and usually has the long day. The parent is going to be more concerned about the ingredients and benefits for the child and less about how long her kids day was. I also think that the ads are slightly raunchy (kids doing bad things, kids walking in on their parents doing something bad), but that is not something I want to associate with spaghetti sauce.
DeleteI don't think either advertisement is as incongruous as you imply. The Ragu spot followed a typical made-for-TV commercial formula of "hooking" the audience (the shock gag of walking in on one's parents in bed) and then conveying the value proposition of the product (treating and comforting your child with America's best-selling tomato sauce). I suspect that the motive behind the ad was to increase brand recall at the time of purchase - you're in the tomato sauce section starting at jars of Ragu, Prego, and umpteen other brands...and then you remember the poor chubby kid seeing Mom and Dad in flagrante delicto. Well done, Ragu, well done.
ReplyDeleteThe Southern Comfort spot employed a different technique - keep the viewer guessing as to the product to capture attention and place emphasis on the short product highlight at the end of the clip. Instead of improving time-of-sale brand recall, this segment was meant to build and develop the brand image as perceived by the consumer/viewer. The sequence created a character (a bronzed, fleshy Everyman in undersized trunks with an oversized swagger) and showed the viewer that this guy is happy because he's doing what's comfortable for him, which includes drinking Southern Comfort. By the end of the spot, the viewer is left with an association of Southern Comfort to images of relaxation, self-confidence, and individualism.
I think the method behind the madness in both of these spots has much to do with the environment in which the consumer purchases these products. I don't spend a lot of time picking out pasta sauce, but I am very deliberate in the aisles of the ABC store. My habits are certainly not mirrored by every buyer, but the commercials effectively address my personal behavior in the store.
These two ads are really disappointing for me! Even if sometimes the fact that an ad has a surprising and non-expected end is a good point for the brand (original and funny end, easy to memorize, buzz or word of mouth...); here I am disappointed in the punch line of these ads.
ReplyDeleteThe first is not verry funny and makes no sense and in the second it lacks a kind of troublemaker component to disrupt with the calm and slowness of the ad. I don't know why but I was sure that something crazy or sudden would happen.
Moreover i don't really understand the strategy of the whiskey brand because for me when I think "whiskey" I imagine some men well-suited in a pretty living room who discuss with a glass of whiskey next to a chimney. It is very uncommon to place whiskey on the beach with a man who wears a bathing suit! But maybe it is why we will not forget this ad !