May 18, 2005
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What happened to companies subtly - to a greater or lesser degree - suggesting that if only we bought and used their products, we too could be as beautiful or rich or stylish or popular as the people in the ads?
Nowadays commercials portray those who use the advertised product as being not so bright.
Case in point: a Bud Light ad that aired during this evening's
Mavericks' play-off game. It showed a man aping a chimp in order
to get a beer from it.There's a heck of an incentive to purchase and drink Bud Light . . . "We'll make a monkey out of you!"
Comments (7)
Okay, I'm probably getting WAY too complex here, but... (since when has that ever stopped me?)
the old "our product will improve your life" pitch sought to persuade people that the product had some value. You wanted it for reason X.
The more modern "monkey" approach focuses on "you want this." Not for any reason, except maybe to demonstrate that other people really want it, too.
So they show people making fools of themselves to get the product, in order to demonstrate how desirable the product is. It's so wonderful that people are willing to do ridiculous things to get it -- doesn't that make you want it, too? You're not given any reason why it's desirable you're just being told that it IS.
I'm sure there's a profound cultural criticism to be made there, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
OK, I hate to defend TV (not being a huge fan) and beer (not being a fan at all), but you didn't see the whole commercial, did you?
It starts out with the man tantalizing the monkey with a banana, and the monkey going wild to get it. Something happens (the man slips or sets his beer down or something) -- anyway, the monkey ends up with the beer, and does the same thing to the man. It is really quite funny, I thought.
Yes, I did, AAMOF. And it was amusing...never said it wasn't.
It surely wouldn't act as an incentive for me to buy that beer. Apparently the people who prefer Bud Light are jerks who think it funny to tease animals, then are so desperate for a beer they'll make a public exhibit of themselves to get one.
So, yeah, it was funny, but I have no desire to lump myself in with chuckleheads like that. That's the problem with all this genre of ads...it makes it appear as if only idiots like the products, and who wants to proclaim themselves an idiot?
Nobody watches commercials anymore unless they are also mini-TV shows. They must entertain, not necessarily inform. Commercials like this are mini-sitcoms. Sitcoms thrive on the sort of humor that consists of humiliating people. Advertisers know people will watch this stuff and talk about it around the water cooler (or on their blogs
) the same way they would talk about last night's episode of "Insert Name of Popular Sitcom Here." The advertiser thereby achieves his goal of name recognition. If, in the process, he also makes a monkey of the consumer, the consumer won't really mind...or won't notice...as long as he gets to achieve his goal of being passively amused at all times.
Now the old Alka Seltzer commercials! Those were ads. Clever, amusing, and got their point across as to exactly why you should buy their stuff.
"Marshmallowed Meatballs!"
Anyone else remember them?
Plop Plop
Fizz Fizz
Oh, what a relief it is!
Valerie's got it -- the only goal is name recognition. It's hard to make a really convincing argument, for example, over why Bud Light is greatly preferable to Miller Lite or Coors Lite. (Personally, I think light beer should be sent the way of DDT, but I digress...) But you won't forget about Bud Light after watching that commercial, and that's the point.
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