I RATE ADS

sjbooher: These are reminiscent of one my all-time favorite campaigns, the Johnson Automotive Badger — both involve local car dealerships, and both use animals in an attempt to be zany and funny. However, where the badger is completely original and awesome, these monkey ads are bit too easy, and not all that funny. A little bit of “joke in a can” syndrome. Teeanage boy making out with someone’s daughter? Been there, although the shotgun scene was a little funny. That being said, much of the masses love lazy comedy. I just feel like whoever wrote this campaign was given the leeway to do something great and original, and they did not kock the ball out of the park. C-.

jtherkal: The trunk monkey! This ad is a classic. If I’m not mistaken, the original trunk monkey ad came out about seven years ago, which makes it a pioneer in the monkey ad joke space. While I agree that the badger ads were funnier, they had years of monkey and puppet joke expertise to build on. You can’t deny the hilarity of a monkey leaping around with a defibrillator (a machine for which my brain could not remember the name–I had to Google “electric shock heart restart machine”). But you’re partially right. Even back then this could have been better. A-.

sjbooher: I think this one is way more line with what Obama has been trying to get across throughout his campaign. No attacking the other side, but instead presenting his side of the story. He lays out the problems he sees and even gets into some specifics about solutions. Of course it is two minutes long and still boring as hell. The funny part is, this is probably the first political ad I’ve viewed in HD, and the only thing gained is the ability to shift Obama a little to the “left” side of the screen? Couldn’t they have given me a better background than the same hotel room in which much of the first season of 24 was shot? C.

jtherkal: I agree with that analysis for the most part, though I have to question the “boring” tag. I mean, I guess they could have thrown in some music and maybe some explosions? Maybe he could have made some jokes? Nope. This is what political advertising should be. Talk about the issues and your plans. Things that affect our country aren’t boring. Was this dry? Yes. But political ads shouldn’t feel like ads. They should feel like the candidates talking to you about things that matter. Congrats to Obama for getting back on track. A-.

sjbooher: At the end of the day though, something is being advertised, right? So the goal is to make someone interested in the product, which in this case is Obama? Is anybody that is not already interested in Obama’s campaign going to pay attention to this? I don’t think so. I don’t have the solution… I only point out the problems. Otherwise, I’d have your job.

sjbooher: This ad is weird. So she has the power to freeze time, and she uses it to eat cereal? And if you are fat, does it really cause problems with your top button? Wouldn’t it be the button by your stomach? And the way she opens her blouse at the end is odd, too. I don’t get it. At least she’s hot and the cereal looks appetizing. C-.

jtherkal: What are you watching that this is on? Oprah? This is a commercial I would never take notice of, let alone take the time to find on YouTube and write a review about. I’m obviously not the target (although I am getting a bit of a belly), but even if I was, this is pretty bland. I can’t fail it, but there’s nothing good about it–save the suggestive tug at the blouse. D.

sjbooher: The interesting part is, that all of these cereal, yogurt, etc. ads you seeing reviewed came from a broadcast of the World Poker Tour on the GSN. Seems to me they aren’t selling targeted ad space, but instead just general ad space for their network. Unless there is a secret brigade of underground housewife poker players!

sjbooher: “Hey, mom. When I grow up, I want to be the spokesperson for a digestive aid!” Think Jamie Lee Curtis said that back in the day? All this acting stuff was an elaborate ploy to position herself for this spot, one day? She sure is happy in these ads — ridiculously so. Then they throw in a Dannon happy face logo at the end. There is way too much joy about a nasty yogurt that makes you poop right. Although that feeling of relief does feel good. Why is there such a poop taboo in advertising? Come out and say exactly what you mean! The euphemisms they come up with are amusing. Bottomline, this product and campaign are meant for women, so I am not the best judge. But I can say that I am not enticed, so they didn’t do that great of a job. C-.

jtherkal: Let’s start with the important question: Is Jaime Lee Curtis a hermaphrodite? That’s the first hurdle this has to clear. Because whenever I see Jaime Lee, all I can think is, “she might have a small deformed penis AND a vagina.” The rumors about this are known far and wide, which makes casting her sort of a strange decision. Surely there are plenty of middle-aged actresses who could use the work and are not rumored to be sexually ambiguous. Was the newspaper in her hand a subtle reference to taking a dump? If it weren’t for the Jamie Lee Curtis situation, I wouldn’t even notice this commercial and I certainly wouldn’t remember it. D-.

I’ve taken a look here and I can’t see anything suspicious:

jtherkal: The only thing this has going for it is that is plays on the basic truth that buying a new television is one of life’s great moments. It’s sort of a cheap way in to whatever it is they’re advertising. Aside from the idea that shopping for a new television is exciting, I sort of miss what they’re trying to sell. I walk away thinking that I like the commercial, since I love the idea of getting a giant new television, but when I go back and look closer it’s really sort of lame. C-.

sjbooher: But dude… you can use that there little phone box to find out information about your credit card. I think we take for granted the fact that we can use our phones/computers/etc. to find out information like this, but there is a large part of America that is on the other side of the Digital Divide. I really like this ad, much for the reasons you describe. I too love buying tvs. You are also right that the joy comes from something other than the product, but I think that is the case in much of advertising. B+.

jtherkal: Every once in awhile advertising people get all worked up about a campaign that, to me, seems like a total waste. Right now almost everyone I talk to is raving about this “white gold is white gold” campaign. A rock star who was handed a guitar full of milk. This is clearly the work of some over-ambitious creatives who have a big boner for Spinal Tap. They’ve probably been trying to sell a Spinal Tap campaign for years. I never really liked that movie. Since I started in advertising I’ve pretended to be a Spinal Tap fan, as so many creative directors and other folks in the industry sport large wood for it. At first, I would pretend to like it so that I wouldn’t seem like an idiot. Then I watched it, and I still pretended to like it, again not wanting to appear foolish. But no more. Spinal Tap, not that great. This campaign? It doesn’t make me want milk at all. And I LOVE milk. They have an extravagant website and some viral video components to this, so if it was good, it would be real good. Only I think it’s bad, so all that extra wasted energy makes it real bad. Sorry ad friends, but I’m not on your wagon this time. F.

sjbooher: It does seem a bit dumb and cliche to me… and what is Spinal Tap? Ha. “Rock Stars” are that ish right now though, so this will probably have some success, but I do not get the milk connection, either. Not to mention this is sort of a direct bite on the Heineken “Liquid Gold” ad. I have always thought it was dumb, in general, for milk to even waste money on ads. How can you forget about milk? C-.

jtherkal: Blah blah blah. Cute, but why? It does an alright job of getting your attention, but then they payoff is sort of weak. I would certainly think Lexus could do a better job of explaining why “the power of h” is important and desirable. It’s a pretty good line, but nothing about missing h’s speaks to that power. I mean, you’ve done more the Lexus than just add an h to the model number, right? Part of me wants to like this, I just don’t. C-.

sjbooher: I like it, even with a bit of a weak ending. Despite not showing the product early on, they draw you in by making you want to see why the h’s are not appearing anywhere. I also like that they took a different approach to selling their Hybrid models than the other companies who just beat you over the head with “miles per gallon”. It allows them to stand out, perhaps. B-.

sjbooher: I will preface this by telling you that in general, if a woman is considered attractive by any significant amount of men, I too find her attractive. Since I can find something attractive about most women, celebrities are usually a slam dunk, as they usually have to be attractive in the first place, in order to become a celebrity.

Enter, Kate Walsh. I hate Grey’s Anatomy, but prior to this ad, I had never really singled out Kate for any of that hatred; she was just part of the bigger blog of hate. Now everything has changed. I know, I know… she’s on whatever that spinoff is now, but you get my point. WHY was she picked for this spot? This ad is supposed to exude sexiness — “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” — and they were clearly trying to have a sexy woman driving the car. FAILED. Kate Walsh is only “celebrity hot”, meaning she’s pretty much average at best, but with enough makeup, styling and expensive fashion, she pulls off the illusion of hot — and sometimes even that does not do the trick. For her part in this ad, the most important sexy attribute are the words coming out of her mouth. Again, FAILED. Her voice is nasally and annoying, and it sounds like she has problems getting through the entire script in one breath. Of all the beautiful celebrities out there, how did she get the job? She’s at best the 3rd most attractive woman on her former show… hell, I think Taye Diggs turns me on more than her! F-.

jtherkal: Oh, my poor friend, this ad was not meant entirely for you. Sure, they figured they’d get a sliver of male interest from a script describing how the purr of an engine might send blood rushing to a lady’s special area, but I think they chose her for other reasons.

She’s on Grey’s Anatomy, a show clearly made for ladies. And from that show, they chose an elder, more respected character–one that other women might see as a sort of sexy mentor. They could have picked one of the younger, hotter women. But they didn’t. While on the surface this might seem like Cadillac is trying to get mens’ interest by having some broad in one of their cars talk dirty, I think it’s really designed to speak to all of the ladies out there with high paying jobs or high paying husbands. It says, “you can be older and sexy and a lady and this is your car and it might get you hot.” I still don’t really like it, but I can’t give it an F. C-.

sjbooher; Well, if that is the case, they should not air it during every sporting event known to man. F–.

sjbooher: This updates a previous post on this campaign. Looks like the people at Strapped had the same thoughts that we had, as it appears, based on their myspace page, that the chose to go with the above version of the ad. I still don’t think it’s great, because it is still very hard to tell that this is for condoms, but Lil’ Wayne is a good choice of spokesperson, it’s more obvious the other guy is a cop this time, with the badge showing, and the product is displayed, no matter how hard to see. I’ll upgrade to a C-.

jtherkal: I like this even less than the other one. At least that one was wrong and strange and all sorts of controversial–and now that I look at it, there’s almost nothing in that one to identify the guy bending Lil Wayne over as a cop. No badge, no uniform, no sirens; just a regular guy in a black fleece vest? In this version it’s not all that much clearer what’s taking place or why. And Lil Wayne looks sort of ridiculous in this with that stupid “who, me?” expression. This is still far from the bedroom and involves no females at all. Can’t we get some ladies into a condom ad? I mean, that’s what they’re for! What kind of worthless art director missed the opportunity to get a busty cop into this ad? BRING ON THE BUSTY COPS! Although I guess if you were going to prison, you’d want to go down strapped as well. Still an F.

Here is what this ad should have been, had anyone involved with any aspect of this project been doing their job:

jtherkal: Dude. This idea had enough legs to be good for about one commercial. Dude. I think this was about the third or fourth version. Dude. And while it’s still pretty entertaining and true, it’s starting to get old. Dude. And a little annoying. Dude. Know when to say when. Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. C.

sjbooher: Dude. I generally lean anti-dude… except in the Hip-Hop slang context, used when describing another person, as in: “that dude can hit the 3″. So the fact that I sort of liked the original of this campaign, was a bit of an upset. My colleague has nailed this one. While there is definitely something to be said for incessantly hitting the consumer of the head with the same idea, I just realized that as many times as I have seen or heard these spots, I could have maybe guessed it was for a Budweiser product, but I could not have had told you which one. Maybe the guy should have been saying “Bud”. Bud. Bud. Bud. C-.