When was the last time you’ve seen a commercial? Probably about a week if you watch tv. Most times you either jump to a different channel or if you TIVO, you just skip them. Of course, there isn’t anything WRONG with that, at least from our point of view. Our TV Shows (however strange and drab) can be considered works of art, simply because they are. Someone has a vision for the show and they set about assembling all the pieces so that they (hopefully) fit together and portray the directors/writers vision. That’s why we love shows. They follow a story line, they allow us to connect to the characters because they mirror us as hyperboles.
But then again, they do have a minimum of 30 minutes to do so. Commercials – they don’t get the same treatment. Marketers and Advertising agencies have a maximum of 30 seconds to wow us, pull us in and convince us we need something. The only thing commercials have is that you can see them every 15 minutes.
So we can see, commercials clearly have a hard time doing what they’re supposed to do. But they make it even harder on themselves by sticking to the standard flow of commericals. For example, any commercial for hair-care products for women have the same formula
- Girl with not shiny hair
- Girl with non shiny hair uses *INSERT PRODUCT*
- Girl with non shiny hair now has shiny hair which she ties into a knot (why?)
- Girl flips her hair over her shoulder, smiles at the camera and the commercial ends.
This pattern has been presented so many times to us that we don’t need to see the whole thing anymore. At any of the steps we can quickly identify the type of commercial. Of course, it’s not just womens commercials that follow this. Think of beer commercials aimed at men
- Girls
- Girls with less clothes
- Party with girls with less clothes
- Average Joe
They’re all the same, every commercial will follow the pattern of another commercial done before it.
There are of course a few who try and separate themselves, but most times they fall flat. Some notable ones of course, include Pepsi’s commercial featuring Jimmy Fallon and Parker Posey’s dancing through the street.
And now, out of the blue, Old Spice throws its hat into the ring. Creative agency Wieden and Ross (widen and Ross) have created what I think is one of the best (if not THE best) commercials on TV. Not only do I not mind watching it, but I actually Youtube it because it’s great. It’s nonsensical in an awesome way. Just.. just watch.
