Remind Me Again Why Advertising is Hard??

There are some pretty dumb commercials airing right now, as usual. Ones that make me wonder why advertising is such a glorified industry. I mean, generate interest in the product, that's it. You're done. It seems like they are going for memorable above anything else, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I remember plenty of stupid shit I've seen over the years, doesn't mean I'm going to do it simply off the basis of remembering it.

We'll start with one that's been around a while. The Kia Soul commercials. Ugh. When did hamsters become good spokespeople? The first one with them kinda made sense, hamsters running in their wheels all over the place and then some driving by in a Kia Soul, symbolizing the rest of us just driving and not enjoying and appreciating the full experience of vehicle. Blah blah blah. But the new one with the hamsters wearing clothes pointing at cars and toasters to rap music. WTF?? I can't really go much further than that. It's dumb. Memorable and dumb. I am no more enticed to buy this car than I was before. Kia- you wasted a lot of money on this commercial. Someone needs to be fired.

The McRib commercial is another one. It really doesn't seem that bad at first, but after 10 times, it seems a little... off. They had to go and ruin a great Matt White song because now there's 25 seconds I want to skip through every time I listen to it now. People being in LOVE with a sandwich?? Umm... no. I like food as much as the next person, but I'm not about to start singing sappy ballads about it. It makes me think these people are kinda crazy, not that they are about to bite into a delicious sandwich. Makes no sense. These advertising executives need to add a new step to the process- sleep on it. It might not sound like such good marketing after all.

And the State Farm commercials! Those guys singing the song and their agent magically pops up and fixes everything. Any logical person in their right mind knows that this is impossible. So why advertise it like that. It's like saying "weelllll we KNOW it doesn't really work like this, but it's LIKE that." I don't want "like that," I want that to give me enough reason to go through the hassle of switching insurance companies. If it's not like that, it's not worth the effort. The guys they hired to do these commercials are pretty annoying. Not good salespeople.

I did see one commercial tonight that I have to say was the most effective one I've seen in a while. There's a polar bear in his natural habitat but then you see him traveling across the U.S. and he goes up to this guy getting in his car and gives him a hug. It's advertising an electric car by Nissan. I LOVED it! Tugs on your heartstrings, and you stay hooked because you wonder why this polar bear is making this pretty pointless journey out of his environment. I actually looked up the car after the commercial. It's a pretty hideous vehicle, to be honest, but my interest was piqued enough to go to the website. I'd say that's the sole point of commercials- generating interest. They got mine.