When I hear this kind of inane radio commercial produced by a small market radio station, I assume the copywriter is a novice who hasn’t yet learned the craft.
But when it’s a national spot for a major brand…
The story of that commercial is “the engineer/producer keeps putting dumb music under the narrator’s voice, thereby annoying the narrator.”
That story has absolutely nothing to do with what’s being advertised.
You could replace all the copy related to the advertiser without touching the (clichéd and pointless) “story.”
Unfortunately for Chevy, if listeners remember anything at all from a radio advertisement, it will be contained in the story that is told.
Fun Statistic
Percentage of audience members who will listen to the last 31 seconds of this spot?
Zero.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Someone got told “We’ve got to have some drama and conflict instead of a straight sell.”
And after all that those last 31 seconds have the usual distracting pointless music bed.
“The client wants something funny and unusual…not just a bunch of info about the product,” said the sales rep.
“Ooh, we need something for a :60 contract! What can you do to stretch what you’ve already got?!”
The :60 actually clocks in at about :56. Take out all the annoying attempts at humor, leaves you at :32. The disclaimer is :06+, bringing it down to :26 of anything that even resembles a selling message. Frankly, if the opening part is dropped, the announcer portion weighs in at under :21 – and can really stand on its own. Add back the disclaimer and you’ve got about :28 a dry but not annoying message. The Radiocratic Oath: First, do not annoy.
With standards like this example, any wonder why GM is struggling?