Monday, May 30, 2011

Public Relations Triumph

Well, it worked on me. I saw this 30-second ad on the television the other day, and I laughed and laughed. It is such a clever ad. I reminds me of the paper bag theater skits we used to do at camp when I was a kid. The writers of the ad set out the props (advertisements for brand-name products themselves), and present a surprise (yet somehow plausible) absurd situation. It's all over in 30 seconds. I imagine that I'm not the only person who told her family and friends about it. I imagine that I'm not the only person who looked up the ad on YouTube. I imagine that I'm not the only person who watched a few more equally amusing ads from this company that use the same clever format.

I felt less angry at the corporation for what it has done to small town America (as opposed to what they claim to do for small town America) when I went there this morning. I went there thinking that perhaps the corporation is not as bad as it used to be. In reality the problems caused by this corporation are so great that they clump together in a tangled mass, and the soma of the feel-good ad makes it easier to look the other way.

They certainly hired clever people to write these ads.

5 comments:

David Wolfson said...

Interesting—it didn't affect me that way at all. It struck me as vaguely creepy, starting with the gorgeous young mom trying to make herself look younger and teaching her children that that's desirable. Then the unnaturally cute children. Then I wondered how hard it was going to be to get that stuff out of the sofa.

I guess I'm a hard case, but this didn't strike me as enjoyable—and even if it had, the only opinion an enjoyable ad will change for me is my opinion of the ad agency.

Elaine Fine said...

It only got on a pillow, which you can replace cheaply if you shop at this store. I would prefer to see the ad your way. Thanks for the interpretation.

Anonymous said...

The Internet will eventually put Wal-Mart out of business. Why shop there, especially when one tallies up local sales taxes, which remain easy to avoid shopping online in many places?

Elaine Fine said...

The internet is not a store, and Walmart is part of the internet. Walmart puts other stores out of business.

Anonymous said...

"The internet is not a store, and Walmart is part of the internet. Walmart puts other stores out of business."

Petrucci contributes to putting small music stores and some music publishers out of business. Guttenberg is nibbling away at the sales of the classic books. The internet is indeed a store, and many of its products are not low priced but free. Free undercuts quite effectively.