This commercial critique will surprise and probably annoy some Loyal Readers. First, the radio commercial:
You’re waiting for me to tear it apart, right?
But overall, I’m impressed.
• Yes, “Back to programming in a minute” will drive PDs crazy. But I’m evaluating this from the advertiser’s and prospect’s perspective, not the radio station’s. And the advertiser is attempting to create the illusion of a radio host talking about something that interests here — while simultaneously stating quite clearly that what she’s about to say is not programming.
Which minimizes their exposure to accusations of trying to disguise the fact that the listener is hearing advertising.
• They’re smart enough not to say, “Listen to what it says here in the paper…”
They understand that the sound effect of rustling newspaper is enough to paint the appropriate picture in the listener’s mind. They’re smart enough to “show” rather than to “tell.”
• “There’s a number you can call” — They refer to the existence of a phone number but they don’t give it yet. Why not? Because they haven’t yet given listeners a reason to want to call.
• “It says that during the Great Depression, people were greedy for gold coins, because no one wanted to face economic turbulence without the security gold.” — Selling is educating. They’re planting the seeds of why the listener should care.
• She’s telling a story. The story is carefully constructed to make people want to call that phone number, but it’s a story…not a brochure.
• “That’s why most of us have never even seen a classic U.S. gold coin.” While my jaded advertising ears can’t help but guess that “classic U.S. gold coin” contains some weasel words — meeting some legal technicality — that’s a great line.
They’re taking a truth — most people haven’t seen a classic U.S. gold coin — and the story she’s telling at last solves the mystery that we didn’t even realize existed before this commercial began. The fact that you’ve never seen a U.S. gold coin somehow proves this commercial is truthful.
• Here’s a left-handed compliment: The voice person doesn’t sound like a real person, talking conversationally. Purely from a VO performance perspective, it’s not an impressive read. Instead, she sounds like a radio host — not a great one, not a terrible one.
So while she doesn’t sound as though she’s sharing some intriguing piece of information she’s just stumbled upon — as a truly good radio personality would — she doesn’t sound like a commercial announcer, either.
She comes across as someone doing a mediocre job of sharing something she hopes is interesting to her listeners. Good radio program? No. Effective radio commercial? Yes.
• She does get bogged down at the halfway point as she struggles to make “gleaming U.S. gold coins minted between 1866 and 1993, all uncirculated” sound conversational. I’m guessing that bit of required info presented the copywriter with a bit of a struggle.
• “It says the New York Mint is releasing them to the public” — Again reinforcing the verbal reality of “Hey, did you see what it says here in the paper…?”
• “…when you call…Here it is” — And for the first time she gives the phone number.
She hasn’t been shouting it at the listener throughout the commercial. Instead, she introduces it only after — hopefully— she has caused some people to think, “Hmm, maybe I should check that out. How do I found out more about this ‘gold coin’ thing?”
The woman doesn’t imply the phone number has any intrinsic value. It’s just something she’d seen in this “article” she’s been referring to, and it’s important only insofar as it will help interested listeners find out how they can take part in this wonderful, historic opportunity.
(Is it a wonderful opportunity? Is it historic? I have no idea. I’m not endorsing the product. I’m complimenting the radio commercial that sells it.)
• “Wouldn’t that be amazing?” — Really nice line, well delivered. Very un-announcerish.
• The weakest element of the spot is the fuzzy reason given to cal lthat phone number. For “free historic information?” (Let me guess: That’s another way of saying “sales brochure.”)
For the “free collector’s DVD?” What’s on that DVD? Why does it have value to the targeted listener?
In reality — still guessing, but willing to back up my guess with a large wager — the DVD is a sales pitch. But if it pitches the value of these “collectors’ coins,” then I’d say technically it does qualify as a “collector’s DVD.”
Do I endorse this product? No. Nor do I suggest you invest in gold coins. I don’t know anything about that.
But I know good advertising when I hear it.
Comments on this entry are closed.
It’s funny, I had the exact opposite reaction than you, Dan, when I first heard this commercial several months ago. In fact, when I heard the, “when you call…here it is…” it made me think, “how fake!” and roll my eyes. You are right—some good points in this commercial–not a terrible delivery–but not great, either. But the more you hear it, the less genuine it sounds–an that will kill the overall effectiveness of the spot. I would guess this is played mostly on talk radio, which typically has high TSL. That means this commercial has been played to death and has probably driven away more listeners than it attracted.
If you ever wondered why people have a negative opinion of the advertising business, this is the reason. A spot can be almost entirely mendacious, as this one almost certainly is, and still be considered “good advertising.”
I agree with the previous comment that this spot in particular gives off a phony, creepy, trying-too-hard-to-not-try-too-hard vibe. It triggers the scam alarm. And the people dumb enough or naive enough to respond to it are probably the exact kind of people the advertiser is hoping to rope in.
It’s the saddest possible comment on the state of broadcast radio that you can sit through an entire commercial break and hear nothing but ads for scammy stuff like this.
All the analytical comments understood. Agree with many. But in the final analysis, this thing leaves me thinking, What kind of a fool do you take me for? You want me to buy gold and you expect me to BELIEVE this cheese?
Despite all the excellent technical points, it’s still a disingenuous execution. In a case such as this, I’d much prefer the honesty of someone speaking to me intelligently without the veneer of fakery.
That aside, I’ve wondered what happened to this country. Now I know. “A government meltdown was ordered.” (That’s some good copy.)
IN THE CHICAGO AREA, EVERYTIME I HEAR THIS AD, WHETHER ITS FOR THE GOLD OR SILVER COINS… I TURN THE RADIO OFF. I CANT STAND IT. ITS FAKE AND NEW YORK MINT HAS NOTHING CUT CUSTOMERS COMPLAINTS. I THINK I EVEN READ ITS NOT EVEN IN NEW YORK, ITS IN MINNESOTA.
AND YES, THE – HERES THE NUMBER…. CRAP….OMG, SOME AD COMPANY SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED FOR EVEN WRITING THIS CRAP.
The commercial drives me insane. The woman who does the voice over would most likely recieve death threats from listers driven to the brink of madness if anyone knew who she actually was. The commercial is played over, and over, and over, and over again to the point i too turn the radio off at the sound of that womans HORRIFIC voice. This is a scam and anyone who actually belives these are ” rare US gold coins ” needs to have thier head examined.
I’m glad I found this blog because finally I hear other people talking about this “fingernail-on-the-blackboard” commercial that I hear ALL THE TIME on my local radio station’s online stream.
First of all “gold lady” does a horrific job of not sounding like a commercial. The tone is not conversational at all. And why would a friend telling you about this great article she found, start the conversation with “back to programming in a minute…” Is she supposed to be a news announcer, a pitch woman, a friend telling you about gold coins, some 3 A.M. informercial pitchwoman? It’s so fake and annoying that I must turn the radio down or plug my ears every time it comes on, especially when she says, “here it is,” and crumples paper like it’s supposed to be a newspaper or something. So fake, so campy, so annoying.
A stash of classic gold coins found in Europe minted from the years 1866 to 1933 is now being made available?
Sounds like a German stash was cracked open to build some quick cash to fund the New Nazi Fourth Reich, wow!
I’m amazed that someone decided to make a blog that lays out everything that a sophomore college communications major thinks that they’re smart writing about.
This commercial should be reported. It clearly is illegal when the lady says The New York Mint is doing it. the company is New York Mint-not the New York Mint.
I don’t like this commercial because of the style that it uses. I’m not in advertising though so my opinion is strictly as a listener/intended audience of the spot.
That said, I’ve heard this very same commercial but with a man doing the voice over. He is much more convincing, specially the part where he has to rustle through the papers to “find” the phone number. The woman that’s doing it now just seems to be going through the motions.
if there are real coins, they are fresh minted by china. counterfit!!!!!
Pure cheese all around. Rustling papers? C’mon – ridiculous. And unless New York became a country without my knowledge, there’s no such thing as “the New York Mint.” Coins are minted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. And what the heck is a government meltdown anyway — a meltdown of the government?
Can we also throw the commercials that use phrases to suggest some sort of false exclusivity like “Strict limit of 4 per household” or “Listener’s with names beginning with A through P can start calling right now…” into the mix as cringe inducing bunk that should be removed from the modern copy writers guide?
Yes, the ad is dumb. But the coins are certified and authenticated.ive been collecting coins for 20 years and hav been a new york mint customer for 6. Not a scam at all. The company hs been aroind 15 years and yes. Its in minnesotA. Sorry for the grammer. Im on cell phone n my thumbs are big. And green.
I’ve heard that “oh hear it is”( in regards to the phone number as though she just found it.) before on another commercial even more annoying than this one. It was some clown telling listeners about a free CD that you can put in your pc. It makes you money while you sleep selling products that you never have to see or pay for.
I called the number just to hear the lies from a telemarketer.
It was some guy in his early sixties who told me that he doesn’t really need this job…he does it to help people out. He got to the part where he asked for my Visa card number for this free CD and I asked him how he sleeps at night. He hung up on me:)
the \here it is\ reminds mes of the sham-wow guy that tells us he hasn’t got all day… filler that suggests the speaker and listener are engaged in a personal conversation. Also agree that a company erroneously named \New York Mint\ (even if it weren’t in Minnisota), suggests a quasi official or government standing to be offering these coins. They are a coin dealer like any other coin dealer. There ought to be a law that a company that doesn’t \Mint\ can’t call itself a Mint. From beginning to end this ad strings together unrelated though otherwise possibly truthful statements out of context to create the impression of \found treasure that can be yours…\ Yuck!
Is it me… or does it seem that MOST satallite radio commercials are scams? This “New York Mint” is just one… what about the Soft-Water pitches or the “Get out of Debt” hucksters???
I know It must be difficult to find adverizers who can or want to support a wide-reaching NATIONAL audience… but I hear most of these commercials on supposedly subscriber-supported satillite radio.
Yeah right! Someone discovered the “stash” of coins in Europe and said “Hey, we better do the right thing and turn this over to the New York Mint in the United States”.
I think the commercial is misleading, to say the least. The company is called New York Mint to give a false sense that it’s affiliated with the government somehow. The Franklin Mint does the same thing. There’s only a few mints in the country, and there sure aren’t New York mint marks. And the reason people haven’t seen U.S. gold coins isn’t because of the meltdown, it’s because they’re out of circulation. Many people haven’t seen seated liberty coins or even Morgan dollars, and overall they’re a lot more common than a U.S. gold coin. And the European stash is completely bunk, unless it’s just referring to a collection bought from a European dealer or collector, which again is misleading. It’s probably not referring to that, though, because it’s a lot easier to find U.S. coinage for sale in the U.S.
Franklin Mint is called a mint because at one time it actually operated the largest private mint in the world and issued some very fine products that would make US Mint offerings look like junk. Many of the staff at the US Mint learned while working for Franklin Mint.
New York Mint is just a marketing company…though a good and honest one. Expensive and advertising doesn’t make it a scam.
Addition to my previous post. Its a false belief that only governments have mints. Very few governments have mints…most of the minting is done by private mints.
The new york mint is a sham of a company.
Located here in minnesota.
This company is a joke!!!, do not buy from
this company. They over price all coin(s) by
nearly double than thier worth.
This company has more complaints than
the reccession…
This is about the stupidest commercial out there, second to people who want you to fork over money so you can name a star after someone. Your commentary is squarely off the mark.
The advertisement does catch the listener and I agree with you, but I feel that it is targeted to the non collector and could be a scam. Yes these coins do exist, but are the ones the New York Mint is selling legit or counterfeit. She expains that the New York Mint is releasing, which to me makes it sound like a federal mint is releasing these old coins, but the New York Mint is just a company, there is no federal Mint in NY.
Haven’t you heard of the West Point Mint in New York?
I despise this ad. It has the polar opposite effect on me from its intended purpose. The “here it is…….” Rustle,rustle,rustle of paper is insulting and smacks of intentional misdirection bordering on fraud.
I too, turn it off when it runs in Washington, DC
How many times can the women announcer say “but first…”
they don’t offer any deals that a good coin dealer wouldn’t give you for half the price if not less
Someone above said something about satellite radio being the scammiest place for ads… Partially correct — I’d have to say that radio in general is the scammiest place for ads. The only legitimate businesses I seem to hear ads for on the radio are insurance ads (still questionable by the nature of their business alone,) fast food ads, and local business ads.
That being said, this ad is despicable for all the reasons the other commenters have mentioned. Good breakdown by Dan, but unless gullible people are buying these coins in droves, I’m not convinced it’s a very effective advertisement.
I will admit here that I wrote and complained to New York Mint about the word “greedy” being used to describe people concerned about their financial future. Perhaps I was not the only one, they subsequently changed the wording to “clamoring for gold coins.”
Basically, the word Mint has three meanings, the plant they make juleps out of (genus Mentha), a place where coins, tokens or metals are made, or a vast sum or amount. So they could be technically correct although misleading to call the company Mint, but what is the company’s nexus with New York?