This radio commercial for Radio Shack begins with 2 sentences that are original and pertinent.
But then….
“Most Americans live within five miles of a Radio Shack.”
Huh! I didn’t know that.
They actually begin that commercial with one of the techniques I teach: “The Startling Statistic.”
And then they connect that statistic to the life of the targeted consumer:
“So you’re probably less than seven minutes away from a really great deal.”
Okay, so far this advertisement is making sense.
So now they’re going to tell us what kind of “really great deal” that’s probably no more than seven minutes away, right?
No. They’re going to spend the next 7 seconds — 23.3% of the commercial time — spouting gibberish about alternative, foolish ways in which we could spend those seven minutes.
As a result, the announcer has to rush through the actual sales message at a rate that is virtually unintelligible to the casual (i.e., typical) radio listener.
Amazing.
Suggestion
1. Eliminate the 7 seconds of inanity.
2. Use those 7 seconds to speak slowly enough and to enunciate clearly enough for us to understand why having a Radio Shack no more than 5 miles away can be a good thing.
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Love the disclaimer , may as well get Alvin the Chipmonk to voice it
I can’t believe Norm MacDonald signed off to read these ads…I truly feel bad for him.
Actors/comedians anyone in the entertainment biz can say all the want about their “craft” but you still have to do some jobs to pay the bills. That’s the reality. Most of them however realize this and live for the jobs they can thrive with creatively.
There really isn’t any focus…the cute part of the copy really works well, but isn’t appropriate for the rest of the spot, to me anyway.
I’d like to see what a focus group would say and what it retained and does it motivate you to head to a radio shack. In theory, you’d think the ad agency would do just that, but considering some of the national crap that hits the air, I’d say it isn’t done as it probably should be.
Several of these just started airing in the Pittsburgh market, and they’re so bad I had to Google them to see if anyone else had noticed. On the FM station I’m always tuned to, we get a ton of spots that are either a) high-concept ads by junior creatives that get lost in their own kick-assedness and suffer from (obviously) having been cut down from :75 to :60 in the booth-read, or b) nice, tight narratives and vignettes that are mulched into audio landfill by tone-deaf casting and direction.
That’s why it was a surpise to hear national spots with a “name” voice that are flat-out throwaways. There’s literally no sell, and — with a :30 envelope — they’ve thrown a straitjacket on a talent who’s funnier than the copywriter to begin with, and whose money-shtick is based on sardonic pauses, detours and asides. Plus, why even hire MacDonald if you’re going to make him nearly unrecognizable with a freight-train delivery that sounds compressed and pitch-shifted — unless, of course, he’s doing your TV spots as well, and you just figure your radio audience will add the pictures and “teh funny” in their own heads. That’s pretty lazy.