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MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: Ralphs Grocery Has Trouble With Simple Truth

Here’s the radio commercial….

Presumably Ralphs Grocery spent a lot of money researching and developing the “Simple Truth” product line.

If only they would make an infinitesimally smaller investment in some decent copywriting for their radio commercials.

They waste the first five seconds of this 30-second advertisement by saying:

“These days it seems like a lot of people are trying to take care of themselves a little better.”

Really? By “these days,” do they mean over the past few months? Few years? Few decades?

We’re told where we can find “Simple Truth” products without being told what those products actually are and how they can add to our lives.

We’re told about “the green circle on the packaging.”

Marketing Note: If the packaging is good, you don’t need to use radio advertising to tell people what “the green circle” means.

“Plus, it’s delicious and affordable.”

Well, that’s reassuring. The anonymous hired voice says it’s delicious and affordable.

1.  Are “delicious” and “affordable” in contrast to the rest of the food Ralphs sells?

2.  Only an incompetent copywriter refers to the advertised food as “delicious.”

3.  I  can safely assume that what “she” finds delicious will be delicious to me, too?

4.  “Affordable” — to whom?

5.  No Real Human ever says “affordable.”

What a waste of however much Ralphs is spending on its radio advertising.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • John Pellegrini January 21, 2013, 10:12 am

    Wow. I would say to Ralph’s: “pay me half of what you’re paying this ad agency. I’ll screw it up less and you’ll save money.”

  • scott snailham January 21, 2013, 3:01 pm

    I say affordable all the time…..with an occasional cost effective for good measure.

    It really depends on your own individual perspective now doesn’t it? . Geesh, the way you tore this spot apart I had heard some slightly annoying but largely forgettable male read . Yes, I read the copy posted before I heard it.

    Then I sat down and heard it…..it was a female voice…..and hey, it all came together in my head! A FEMALE READ!

    A female read can pull off the “These days it seems like a lot of people are trying to take care of themselves a little better.” To me, this is designed to be an icebreaker, an opener. it’s like saying…”uh, hello….you know what, I bet you’d like to take better of yourself.. how about..” leading into the pitch.

    As for delicious and affordable…sure, it’s subjective. You’ve got 30 seconds to make a point, and to keep the verbage down. It gets to the point. If it had Joe male voice it wouldn’t work. But a female, with a read directed towards warm,fuzzy and friendly even makes me think of someone like meg ryan, it makes it believable and interesting and hooks me.

    To me, this is a average female talking to other females, from soccer mom to business women, about the subject at hand. It works for that. Not really a bad spots at all…..well, maybe…..to the men who listen…:)