Straight talk about radio programming, radio advertising, radio production...Well, you get the idea.
A loyal reader uploaded this radio commercial, which “includes an octo-man who is capable of handling several tools at one time. I’m also wondering if La-Z-Boy is the name of the dude who produced this.”
This radio commercial does so many things wrong, I don’t even know where to begin critiquing it.
So I’ll leave it to you: How many advertising errors can you spot…in this spot?
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, the woman mumbles; you can’t understand what she’s saying. That’s partially due to the fact that it’s wordy as hell…
The kid at the end was pretty convincing though.
I am guessing the SFX were supposed to represent one man building a recliner/dog house. The SFX did not match up with the copy and made for poor imagery. Plus the kid at the end “read” his line instead of saying it which poured vinegar on an already soured hodgepodge of sound.
Oh – one more thing. I just listened to it within seconds of writing my comments and I truly cannot recall the name of the advertiser. I was so distracted by the lame attempt at humor, it defeated the idea of reinforcing the client’s nam
Holy cow! Not enough room to post them all! And this was a NATIONAL spot? Just a few…The premise of building ur own recliner is ridiculaous, she engages in \announcer speak\ which made her character completely unbelieveable (as if her smooth announcer delivery didn’t already do it), the word \quality\ was used, the \offer\ was incredibly … Read Moreconvoluted (lets see, do I take the savings equal to the sales tax and divide it by one-two-three hundred dollars then subtract $700 to get a sofa for 8-99?). Outta room. Short story…total DRECK!
It no head turning offer and no trust
A ridiculous premise for a spot has been used successfully since the dawn of time. Anyone in this business has been handed scripts that are awful, and if you’re smart, turn them down. Before blaming the actors, the script and production are a train wreck. I listened 3 times and still don’t know what the offer or call to action is. I’m not sure the top 3 vo actors in the world could save this production, or would even take the gig!
Every single word of this script is a mistake. The voice talents are a mistake. The creative is a mistake. The direction is a mistake. The ad agency is a mistake. The client is a mistake. So that’s only 6.
The script doesn’t highlight the RESULTS of the product, unless you truly happen to be building a crappy recliner out of household stuff.
Blah, blah, blah. All steak (albeit a cheap cut) and no sizzle. Benefits sell (WIFM), features do not. These people have jobs in radio and I don’t? To quote Bruce Cockburn, “If I had a rocket launcher…”
How long did this spot spend in development…five minutes? This is what happens when you let salepeople write their own copy. Too much time was wasted trying to make this something funny, rather than something that will sell. The female part has way to much information, totally pulls the listener out of the moment and reminds them, this is nothing more than a hard-to-follow commercial. I think stations should be allowed to have disclaimers on before and after these types of ads “The commercial you are about to hear is poorly conceived and utterly unbelievable….quite frankly, we think it is dumb and apologize for what you’re about to hear, but the client likes it and is actually paying us money to run it, so here goes…”
Perhaps the only saving grace of the spot is that the SFX were mixed loud enough to remove clarity from the script reading.