Hanes has always had Michael Jordan as their main spokesmen, he’s either by himself talking about Hanes or he is accompanied by another actor, such as: Kevin Bacon, Matthew Perry, Charlie Sheen, and Cuba Gooding Jr.
Now stop and think about that for a second…Kevin Bacon, he’s been in over 50 movies and has shared the screen with almost actor known to man. Do I even need to mention the Kevin Bacon Game?
Matthew Perry was on one of the biggest television shows of all time Friends.
Charlie Sheen, he’s the most recent and is currently riding a high with the television show Two and a Half Men.
Cuba Gooding Jr., he’s…ugh…come to think about it, what has he done in the last couple of years?
Cuba had such a promising acting career, especially after doing such movies as: Coming to America, Boyz n the Hood, A Few Good Men, Judgment Night (a completely underrated movie in my opinion), Jerry Maguire (won an Academy Award), As Good as It Gets, What Dreams May Come, and Pearl Harbor. Once 2001 hits though, his career goes in the opposite direction of which it was going – down hill.
Cuba started doing movies like: Rat Race, Snow Dogs, Boat Trip, Radio, Dirty, Shadowboxer – and the list goes on and on.
What I’m really trying to get at: who, at the Hanes Corporation or even the marketing agency that Hanes hired, thought it would be a great idea to have Cuba Gooding Jr. as a spokesman?
He hasn’t done anything note worthy in almost a decade and doesn’t seem to care that his career is headed down an awful path. Did he and his agent really think it would be a good career move to star in Daddy Day Camp? I’m almost sure that Daddy Day Camp didn’t even pay for the catering that was used during filming.
The best review for Daddy Day Camp came from Richard Roeper when he went on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and commented that while he cannot currently use “two thumbs up” to review movies (due to a contract dispute between the trademark’s owner, Roger Ebert, and distributor Disney-ABC Domestic Television) he still has two fingers on one hand he can use to review Daddy Day Camp.
It truly is sad to see where Cuba’s career has gone, but the worst thing from all this is Hanes decision to use him as a spokesman. Hanes was about seven or eight years too late on pulling the trigger to get Cuba in their commercials.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Nationwide
This is probably the best commercial from last year’s Super Bowl (2007). It’s funny on so many levels, such as: Kevin Federline (a.k.a. K Fed) is willing to poke fun at his rap “career” and himself, the look on K Fed’s face when the manager screams at him (cracks me up everytime), and that Nationwide wasted a lot of money on this commercial.
Wait. Did he just say they wasted money on that commercial?
Yes I did.
But didn’t you just get done saying it was the best commercial from last year’s Super Bowl?
Yes, I did; let me explain.
“Nationwide is on your side,” that is Nationwide’s slogan. The reason for this slogan is because they are in business for insurance, investments, and banking; therefore, they are on your side, the consumer, because they are there to help you with your life in the present and future. Nationwide also has business insurance, employee benefits, and financial solutions for private businesses. Currently, Nationwide is the main sponsor of “The Nationwide Series” for NASCAR-“Same Great Racing, New Sponsor,” which replaced Anheuser-Busch’s Busch brand.
Taking a look at what Nationwide offers, do you really think they reached their target market of individuals planning for retirement or businesses looking for financial solutions?
Most people that use Nationwide probably have no idea who K Fed is, thus having him in the commercial was basically a waste. They could have put anyone in that commercial and it probably would not have affected some people’s outlook on the commercial.
Knowing what K Fed had been through in recent times, before the commercial, he was a prefect pick for the commercial if they wanted a “celebrity” in the commercial. And if by “celebrity” you mean someone who is only famous because he impregnated one of the biggest pop stars from the late 20th Century/early 21st Century, then yes, K Fed is a celebrity.
I know all this about K Fed for a couple of reasons: because he married Britney Spears and you can’t go a day without hearing or seeing something about her on the internet-even though no one cares about her any more, I gave my brother K Fed’s CD as a Christmas present (as a prank), and I used to be utterly in love with Britney Spears (and you did too, don’t lie to yourself).
Basically this commercial could have worked better if the target market was better targeted. I don’t know what Nationwide’s target market was or is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not 12 year old girls. This commercial works but, did they really have to spend the money to have K Fed in the commercial?
Wait. Did he just say they wasted money on that commercial?
Yes I did.
But didn’t you just get done saying it was the best commercial from last year’s Super Bowl?
Yes, I did; let me explain.
“Nationwide is on your side,” that is Nationwide’s slogan. The reason for this slogan is because they are in business for insurance, investments, and banking; therefore, they are on your side, the consumer, because they are there to help you with your life in the present and future. Nationwide also has business insurance, employee benefits, and financial solutions for private businesses. Currently, Nationwide is the main sponsor of “The Nationwide Series” for NASCAR-“Same Great Racing, New Sponsor,” which replaced Anheuser-Busch’s Busch brand.
Taking a look at what Nationwide offers, do you really think they reached their target market of individuals planning for retirement or businesses looking for financial solutions?
Most people that use Nationwide probably have no idea who K Fed is, thus having him in the commercial was basically a waste. They could have put anyone in that commercial and it probably would not have affected some people’s outlook on the commercial.
Knowing what K Fed had been through in recent times, before the commercial, he was a prefect pick for the commercial if they wanted a “celebrity” in the commercial. And if by “celebrity” you mean someone who is only famous because he impregnated one of the biggest pop stars from the late 20th Century/early 21st Century, then yes, K Fed is a celebrity.
I know all this about K Fed for a couple of reasons: because he married Britney Spears and you can’t go a day without hearing or seeing something about her on the internet-even though no one cares about her any more, I gave my brother K Fed’s CD as a Christmas present (as a prank), and I used to be utterly in love with Britney Spears (and you did too, don’t lie to yourself).
Basically this commercial could have worked better if the target market was better targeted. I don’t know what Nationwide’s target market was or is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not 12 year old girls. This commercial works but, did they really have to spend the money to have K Fed in the commercial?
Geico - Tiny House
I have always held Geico commercials in high regard because they usually almost always have the perfect mix every time they are produced, which include: grabbing the consumers’ attention, explaining what the product is, what the company is, and makes you laugh/”feel” for the actors. Most commercials nowadays go for two out of four of these “essentials” in commercials, which is extremely sad.
Geico has usually done a series of commercials which involve having a recurring theme for every commercial, these include: the cavemen, gecko, “real life” customers’ stories “comically” told by celebrates, The Real Scoop (such as, Ben Winkler a.k.a. the cabbage patch kid), Mike Wallace the cousin of Rusty Wallace, and inputting iconic cartoons talking about Geico (such as, Speed Racer). All of these have had wonderful running times in primetime with wonderful reviews, except celebrates retelling “real life” customers’ stories.
The idea that most of these celebrates are great spokespeople is without a bad idea.
Mrs. Butterworth? Who is that going to appeal to?
Little Richard? Who knew he was still alive?
Joan Rivers? You can put her in the same group as Little Richard.
Burt Bacharach? Come on, do I even need to elaborate?
The Pips? Who?
Verne Troyer? Has anyone done less to become famous? Wait, wait! How long ago was Austin Powers?
I could go on, but I’ll just name the rest of the “great” spokespeople that Geico has picked: Michael Winslow (the guy from Police Academy movies that does all the different things with his voice), Peter Frampton (widely known for the album Frampton Comes Alive! which features the popular song Do You Feel Like We Do), Don LaFontaine (the movie trailer voice over guy), James Lipton (the host of Inside the Actors Studio), and Peter Graves (from movies, such as: Airplane and Airplane II: The Sequel).
I understand that these are supposed to be entertaining and funning but they tend to be annoying and stupid. Most of the time the celebrity is repeating exactly what the consumer is saying and I know that’s where the “funny” is supposed to be because most people tend to listen to celebrates over everyday people; but as I said before it comes off as annoying instead of funny.
To take your focus away from the poor decision to produce these commercials I’ll shift your focus to one of the many great commercials produced by Geico: Tiny House. I don’t understand why they didn’t attempt to make more commercials like this one? Almost everyone I know paid attention to this commercial when it came on because they thought it was a real reality show and wanted to know what it was going to entail. It was funny, grabbed the consumer’s attention, explained what the product was, and what the company was-the perfect mix. It’s a shame that Geico is wasting their time, reputation, and money on those awful commercials and not on these entertaining ones.
Side note: I am probably the biggest fan of the cavemen commercials, but the reason I decided to put the Tiny House commercial in instead of one of the cavemen is because this one is probably forgotten and shouldn’t be forgotten. Also, I’m going to post later on the cavemen commercials-stay tuned!
Geico has usually done a series of commercials which involve having a recurring theme for every commercial, these include: the cavemen, gecko, “real life” customers’ stories “comically” told by celebrates, The Real Scoop (such as, Ben Winkler a.k.a. the cabbage patch kid), Mike Wallace the cousin of Rusty Wallace, and inputting iconic cartoons talking about Geico (such as, Speed Racer). All of these have had wonderful running times in primetime with wonderful reviews, except celebrates retelling “real life” customers’ stories.
The idea that most of these celebrates are great spokespeople is without a bad idea.
Mrs. Butterworth? Who is that going to appeal to?
Little Richard? Who knew he was still alive?
Joan Rivers? You can put her in the same group as Little Richard.
Burt Bacharach? Come on, do I even need to elaborate?
The Pips? Who?
Verne Troyer? Has anyone done less to become famous? Wait, wait! How long ago was Austin Powers?
I could go on, but I’ll just name the rest of the “great” spokespeople that Geico has picked: Michael Winslow (the guy from Police Academy movies that does all the different things with his voice), Peter Frampton (widely known for the album Frampton Comes Alive! which features the popular song Do You Feel Like We Do), Don LaFontaine (the movie trailer voice over guy), James Lipton (the host of Inside the Actors Studio), and Peter Graves (from movies, such as: Airplane and Airplane II: The Sequel).
I understand that these are supposed to be entertaining and funning but they tend to be annoying and stupid. Most of the time the celebrity is repeating exactly what the consumer is saying and I know that’s where the “funny” is supposed to be because most people tend to listen to celebrates over everyday people; but as I said before it comes off as annoying instead of funny.
To take your focus away from the poor decision to produce these commercials I’ll shift your focus to one of the many great commercials produced by Geico: Tiny House. I don’t understand why they didn’t attempt to make more commercials like this one? Almost everyone I know paid attention to this commercial when it came on because they thought it was a real reality show and wanted to know what it was going to entail. It was funny, grabbed the consumer’s attention, explained what the product was, and what the company was-the perfect mix. It’s a shame that Geico is wasting their time, reputation, and money on those awful commercials and not on these entertaining ones.
Side note: I am probably the biggest fan of the cavemen commercials, but the reason I decided to put the Tiny House commercial in instead of one of the cavemen is because this one is probably forgotten and shouldn’t be forgotten. Also, I’m going to post later on the cavemen commercials-stay tuned!
iPod Commercial
The first video that I’m going to post consists of probably the best commercial of the last eight, or so, years. I am of course talking about the iPod commercials. The VP (vice president) got the idea one day when he was in his cab on the way to the airport and noticed a person crossing the street dancing while listening to his iPod.
These commercials took a huge risk, in the fact that they are relying on the consumer (the person watching the television) is watching the television, as opposed to just having it on for background noise. If you notice there’s no voice over that mentions Apple or iPod, it’s just an extremely colorful background with a pitch black person dancing, usually, to a song while listening to their iPod. You, the consumer, notice only three things while watching: the extremely colorful background, the blank person (who is usually pitch black), and the iPod (which is the only white thing on the screen). By having the iPod as the only white object on the screen, it stands out in comparison to these other extremely dominating colors.
Another reason that these commercials, that ran from 2001-2006, were amazing was the fact that it helped launch some of the musical artist’s careers that were used in the commercial. To have something that big of a cultural phenomenon do such much for so many people, is in itself amazing. Some of the careers it helped launch were: The Fratellis, Caesar’s Palace, Jet, Stereogram, Wolfmother, Gorillaz, and Ouran Style. I know there will be some people out there that will say, “It didn’t launch some of these people’s careers, they already had them before the commercials.” In somewhat of a case it did; it made them more widely known, added to sales, etc. Later the commercials started using some artists that were already pop culturally known while showing their faces, such as: U2, Eminem, Paul McCartney, Mary J. Blige, and Daft Punk (didn’t show their faces though).
The only thing that I can’t figure out, still to this day, is: how exactly did they get these dancers into the commercials? That’s got to be a hard sell!
“I would like you to be in my commercial for Apple’s iPod,” executive speaking to a dancer.
“That’s great. Can’t wait to get started!” says the dancer.
“Oh, just to let you know, nobody will know you were in it because you’ll be pitch black,” says the executive.
Dancer stands there with a questionable look on his face.
In closing, the reason that I picked this commercial out of the many that were available is because it’s the best one. I’m sorry, I don’t care who you are, but dancing in itself is hard to do, this coming from a non-dancer, and to do it on skates…WOW!!!
These commercials took a huge risk, in the fact that they are relying on the consumer (the person watching the television) is watching the television, as opposed to just having it on for background noise. If you notice there’s no voice over that mentions Apple or iPod, it’s just an extremely colorful background with a pitch black person dancing, usually, to a song while listening to their iPod. You, the consumer, notice only three things while watching: the extremely colorful background, the blank person (who is usually pitch black), and the iPod (which is the only white thing on the screen). By having the iPod as the only white object on the screen, it stands out in comparison to these other extremely dominating colors.
Another reason that these commercials, that ran from 2001-2006, were amazing was the fact that it helped launch some of the musical artist’s careers that were used in the commercial. To have something that big of a cultural phenomenon do such much for so many people, is in itself amazing. Some of the careers it helped launch were: The Fratellis, Caesar’s Palace, Jet, Stereogram, Wolfmother, Gorillaz, and Ouran Style. I know there will be some people out there that will say, “It didn’t launch some of these people’s careers, they already had them before the commercials.” In somewhat of a case it did; it made them more widely known, added to sales, etc. Later the commercials started using some artists that were already pop culturally known while showing their faces, such as: U2, Eminem, Paul McCartney, Mary J. Blige, and Daft Punk (didn’t show their faces though).
The only thing that I can’t figure out, still to this day, is: how exactly did they get these dancers into the commercials? That’s got to be a hard sell!
“I would like you to be in my commercial for Apple’s iPod,” executive speaking to a dancer.
“That’s great. Can’t wait to get started!” says the dancer.
“Oh, just to let you know, nobody will know you were in it because you’ll be pitch black,” says the executive.
Dancer stands there with a questionable look on his face.
In closing, the reason that I picked this commercial out of the many that were available is because it’s the best one. I’m sorry, I don’t care who you are, but dancing in itself is hard to do, this coming from a non-dancer, and to do it on skates…WOW!!!
Why I'm Here
A television commercial (I’ll just call them commercials from here on out) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that wants to convey a certain message to the masses. The vast majority of television advertisements today consist of brief advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes (as well as program-length infomercials). The effect of television advertisements upon the viewing public, especially the American view public, has been so successful and so pervasive that it is considered nearly impossible to reach the masses any other way; considering that most Americans on average watch eight hours of television a day.
Advertisements take airtime away from programs. In the 1960s a typical hour-long American show would run for 51 minutes excluding advertisements. Today, a similar program would only be 42 minutes long; a typical 30-minute block of time includes 22 minutes of programming with six minutes of national advertising and two minutes of local. With all this time is being taken away from shows which pique my interest, it infuriates me when these commercials are nothing but a waste of my time.
When I watch a commercial I want to know what the product is, what it does, the company that carries it, and be entertained-all at the same time. I understand that it’s extremely difficult to get all of these things into a 30 second spot, but at least hit three out of four; hell most company’s don’t even hit two out of four anymore. But, in my opinion, when some companies are spending $2.7 million dollars on 30 seconds of advertising during the Super Bowl, hitting four out of four shouldn’t be that difficult; right? Wrong.
Super Bowl commercials have been awful the last couple of years, and of course there are those people out there that will say, “You still remember those commercials, therefore the company did its job.” Wrong. The only reason I remember the companies that made/make awful commercials is to were I don’t buy, use, or associate myself with them.
Because a single television advertisement can be broadcast repeatedly over the course of weeks, months, and even years, television advertisement production studios often spend enormous sums of money in the production of one single 30-second television spot. This vast expenditure has resulted in a number of high-quality advertisements, ones which boast of the best production values, the latest in special effects technology, the most popular personalities, and the best music; but the opposite is true too.
I’m here to give my feedback, probably most of the time going to be extremely critical, on most of the commercials that we see today on television. I’ll explain what’s wrong with the commercial, how it can be fixed (or if it can be fixed), and why the company either needs to keep going in the same direction or change course.
Sometimes I’ll throw in a classic commercial and give my feedback on that too, but for the most part if it’s older I’m probably complimenting it.
Advertisements take airtime away from programs. In the 1960s a typical hour-long American show would run for 51 minutes excluding advertisements. Today, a similar program would only be 42 minutes long; a typical 30-minute block of time includes 22 minutes of programming with six minutes of national advertising and two minutes of local. With all this time is being taken away from shows which pique my interest, it infuriates me when these commercials are nothing but a waste of my time.
When I watch a commercial I want to know what the product is, what it does, the company that carries it, and be entertained-all at the same time. I understand that it’s extremely difficult to get all of these things into a 30 second spot, but at least hit three out of four; hell most company’s don’t even hit two out of four anymore. But, in my opinion, when some companies are spending $2.7 million dollars on 30 seconds of advertising during the Super Bowl, hitting four out of four shouldn’t be that difficult; right? Wrong.
Super Bowl commercials have been awful the last couple of years, and of course there are those people out there that will say, “You still remember those commercials, therefore the company did its job.” Wrong. The only reason I remember the companies that made/make awful commercials is to were I don’t buy, use, or associate myself with them.
Because a single television advertisement can be broadcast repeatedly over the course of weeks, months, and even years, television advertisement production studios often spend enormous sums of money in the production of one single 30-second television spot. This vast expenditure has resulted in a number of high-quality advertisements, ones which boast of the best production values, the latest in special effects technology, the most popular personalities, and the best music; but the opposite is true too.
I’m here to give my feedback, probably most of the time going to be extremely critical, on most of the commercials that we see today on television. I’ll explain what’s wrong with the commercial, how it can be fixed (or if it can be fixed), and why the company either needs to keep going in the same direction or change course.
Sometimes I’ll throw in a classic commercial and give my feedback on that too, but for the most part if it’s older I’m probably complimenting it.
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