Referencing pop culture in video or commercial advertisements is good for safely catering to a preestablished demographic. But what you are selling and which reference is being used have to coincide on some level.
Take the “Thrillicious ” Sobe Life Water commercial. It got a lot of praise as a good commercial for its concept and execution, but if you really sit down and analyze it it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Sure it had Naomi Campbell in it and a bunch of lizards dancing to Thriller, but what has Thriller have to do with Sobe Life Water? I’m still trying to make the connection. It would be like having Jessica Simpson hanging out with a bunch of CGI animated squirrels dancing to “Footloose” to sell (insert random unrelated product here).
But seriously there are concepts that reference pop culture that are appropriate for the product being sold. For instance the Direct TV Ads that begin by playing a scene from a movie such as Star Trek or Alien and turn into the main character doing a spot for Direct TV right in the middle of the scene works well. You get the reference, and it relates to the product being sold. They’re using movies to sell cable. I get it.
I guess the lesson learned is that just because an ad campaign has a lot of bells and whistles does not make it a good ad, if it doesn’t relate to the product. When making a reference to something people will recognize and relate to; make sure it actually has something to do with the product, otherwise they may remember the commercial or ad for the reference but won’t have a clue as to what was being sold in the first place.
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Tags: advertising • alien • CGI • direct tv • footloose • naomi campbell • pop culture • Sobe • star wars • thrillicious
Copyright © 2008 by IdeaStar. All rights reserved.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:31 am
I hear that. That commercial is completely bogus. The first time I saw that commercial was when it came on during the Superbowl. I was intrigued at first, but by the end of the commericial I was left scratching my head. I still see the commercial on from time to time, and thing to myself, “I wonder if Sobe just paid entirely too much money for this commercial and they have to keep playing it?”. Either that or the people at Sobe are some weirdos (which definitely could be the case).
But yes, when you are doing some advertising, you can be different, but try and be relevant.