First, listen to the commercial:
Now, what do you remember?
And that’s immediately after you deliberately listened to it. Imagine the impact that advertisement made on consumers who had the radio on at the time but had no reason to stop what they were doing and try to pay attention to it.
They begin by giving us alternate definitions of the word “new” — as though the targeted listener woke up this morning thinking, “Gee, I wonder what ‘new’ really means?” or even “Gee, I wonder what’s new?”
Here’s a line that’s guaranteed to put any listener to sleep: “The youngest and freshest in the Luxury Car class, backed by 125 years of innovation.”
Hint: If you want to sell the idea of “new,” don’t tell people that it’s a continuation of a 125-year old tradition. (Yes, they say “125 years of innovation,” but what sticks with the listener is “125 years,” not “innovation.”)
If you managed to prevent your mind from wandering away from this radio commercial, what’s the one thing that actually sounded interesting?
Right. The “Attention Assist, which can detect and alert drivers if they become drowsy.”
That’s a genuinely interesting feature. Perhaps even — as Mercedes claims — an innovation.
Too bad it was lost among all the meaningless blather, accentuated by blandly irrelevant music.
Oh, one more thing.
This radio commercial aired on July 24. Yet it attempts to tie Mercedes’ alleged innovation to the “New Year” of 2011.
