What Most People Think of When They Think "Internet"?
When do you use an analogy?
When you want to communicate a concept that might otherwise be foreign to the other person.
The commercial:
The Incredibly Obvious Point:
No one in the target audience (i.e., Internet users) has any trouble grasping the concept of “unlimited Internet usage.”
Therefore, there is no need for an analogy to communicate the concept.
Successful Radio Advertising Intersects Common Human Behavior And Experience.
With apologies to our many friends in Argentina and in Uruguay (and to Robert Duvall), “Tango dancing” does not intersect the lives of most American radio listeners.
Most Americans never competed in a “Tango dance-off.” In fact, most Americans have pretty much no interest in Tango.
Advertising Doesn’t Get Much More Stupid Than This:
“Tango dancing doesn’t have limits; getting the Internet should be like tango dancing.”
Uh, yeah. Sure. Makes perfect sense.
As much sense as:
“You can’t dance the Tango without music; you shouldn’t be able to get the Internet without music.”
“You can’t dance the Tango without a partner; you shouldn’t be able to get the Internet without a partner.”
“Robert Duvall loves Tango; Robert Duvall should like getting the Internet.”
The Only Slightly More Subtle Point:
In a radio commercial, the picture you paint in the listener’s mind is what the listener will remember.
This inane advertisement for CLEAR paints the picture of…Some guy with a cliched accent, not dancing the Tango.
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Unfortunately whenever I visit your blog, all the previously embedded audio begins to play. I cannot stop or pause any of the audio clips – which means I can’t play the Monday Radio Commercial Smackdown without all other audio clips posted on the blog playing over top of it! Help?
@Anonymous: The other audio you were hearing was from a video post a few days earlier, which was set to “autoplay.”
If you ever find that happening again, just click on the title of the posting you want to read (in this case, “MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: CLEAR Internet”) , and anything else will disappear.
In the meantime, I have changed the settings for the video that was interfering for you.
That was awful! Agree with all of your points, Dan.
Dan, you are so right–what an incredibly stupid spot! I was just reading your more recent blog, “MYTH: Radio Advertising Requires Creativity” and you could’ve also linked this audio to that blog because this is a perfect example. You made the point that “‘Creativity’ should never be your goal”; it sounds like the entire goal of this spot was a lame attempt at creativity with no thought toward trying to convey an effective sales message.
And I realize I’m going to be over-analyzing here, but this spot is just so wrong on so many levels. Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that “unlimited internet usage” actually WAS a foreign concept, and the spot needed an analogy to help get the point across–“Tango dancing” is a HORRIBLE analogy to use, so the copywriter(s) would’ve completely dropped the ball there, too! “Tango dancing doesn’t have limits.” Huh!? I’m one of those Americans who has no interest in Tango, but I know that the dance certainly does have plenty of limits. Like any choreographed dance, the Tango is limited in its arrangement of steps (if the dancers suddenly broke out into the “Funky Chicken” it would no longer be a Tango), it’s limited to a certain rhythm, the type of music you can dance to, etc. I really feel sorry for the unfortunate advertiser, who is certainly not getting their money’s worth. Just pitiful.
Dick Sittig from Secret Weapon created their launch campaign using analogies, and it was great.
The radio ad you linked about the tango…sounds like someone trying to copy the original ads that worked. The thing is, I don’t think Sittig would have continued down the analogy route if he were still on the account today.
I absolute LOVE this commercial!!