Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Few relationships in life.


I just saw a Michelin commercial during the NBA Finals.

Here is the VO: "Few relationships in life are as important as the one between you and your Michelin tires."

Let's see, there's my wife. My daughters. My brother. My friends. My co-workers. My doormen. The guy at the fruit stand. The girl on the train who smiled at me. My cousins. My dog.

What happens inside your brain when you hear VO stupidity like that? Your brain says "Michelin are platitudinous liars." And the next time one of their commercials comes on or you see one of their ads, you will shut down. Because we shut down on liars.

1 comment:

Tore Claesson said...

these lines are thought up and gets approved in the vacuum of the ad agency/client world.
A pseudo world. A universe o its own. Which is a paradox as advertising is supposedly aimed at real people in the real world.
People who'd normally privately would laugh at such bull dare not say the truth. It becomes wishful thinking sort of. In fact, idiotic scared shitless people on the client side demands this sort of bull otherwise they feel the agency doesn't love their brand. They believe their job is to keep their agencies in line. Not in the truth.
Even research and testing supports this sort of crap. Crap in crap out. And research firms also need to please their clients, which are either the agency or the client. A client who wants to get confirmation the agency's work shows enough love for the brand.
Agencies put out this sort of hopeless dross because they know this is what the client wants. The master/dog relationship between most clients/agencies is what creates the vacuum, and the bull that is the result of it.