Sunday, August 26, 2012

Mayflower Moving Company : A Very Creepy Commercial

Is is just me or am I being too critical about the Mayflower moving commercial? It opens with a bunch of Mayflower moving guys manipulating a giant wooden puppet of a young woman.

What is Mayflower trying to convey?

1) Their customers are puppets on strings, for their easy manipulation?
2) Their customers are dumb as wooden puppets?
3) Their customers look creepy?
4) Their moving guys like looking up the skirt of a giant wooden puppet as they walk it down the street.

What does a gigantic wooden puppet have to do with moving your personal belongings?
If the advertising company dreamed this one up, then they get a big fat F.
If the Mayflower advertising team pushed this concept, then they need to be transferred to accounting so they can see what little effect this commercial has on the Mayflower bottom line.

This is a really creepy, poorly conceived commercial that has absolutely nothing to do with Mayflowers core services. This one needs to go back to the drawing board.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Tone Death Music Producers in Advertising

Nothing chafs my ass more than a broadcast commercial that airs with a music bed and then ends with a music tag (a.k.a - music sting) that is in completely different key. I am a musician, so this really bugs me in a big way.

To illustrate this... think of the Taco Bell 'bong'. The bong is actually a harmonic sound containing multiple tones; but at least one primary tone key such as (C), but has some faint under pins of F or G. But the advertising agency idiots who shoot, edit and produce the commercials will produce a music bed and a completely opposing diatonic key such as F#.

These folks need a good ear cleaning.

Another company using a similar horrible tonal miss match is Nissan. At the end of every Nissan commercial there is an animation of the Nissan logo with a music sting.

These advertising folks also need a good ear cleaning.

Watch Out for the Big Box Website Builders like Web.com

There are many companies such as Web.com and One & One Hosting who advertise heavily on cable for their website building programs. And at the end of the day you are going to get exactly what you paid for. If you pay a little then you get a little.

I keep the boob tube running in my office and get a good laugh every time I see a commercial for these web site builders. And it would seem that if you let them build your website, then the world will beat a path to your door.

If you are thinking about doing this, then do your homework. Go to Google and search 'Web.com complaints'. YIKES - As of Aug 2012 there are 244,000,000 references found for this search term. Now do the same for One and One. Search 'One and One complaints'. YIKES... there are 178,000,000 references found as of Aug 2012.

Now it would be unfair for me to be critical of these companies if I had not experience the services of these companies first hand. Well it just so happens that I have.

Buyer beware!