Being intimately involved in marketing, I tend to view markeitng efforts suspiciously. For instance, while watching a commercial on TV (my Internet’s been down for a week so I’ve had to resort to killing time in front of the television, but that’s another story), I automatically try to figure out which demographic the advertiser is trying to target (not hard to do) and why they chose that particular channel and time slot. It’s kind of fun actually. I’ve noticed advertisers believe the majority of people watching the History Channel during the middle of the weekday think their audience is out-of-work adults who must either be in financial trouble or need more money. There was a commercial offering to help file for bankruptcy and a commercial to help you lower your insurance bill.
Ok, I’m getting off track here; the thing I want to rant about here are commercials that for one reason or another, drive me nuts. And as weird as it may seem, I’ve actually vowed to avoid these stores and/or products because of their marketing. For example, I cannot stand the new Old Navy commercial with the girls singing about “getting your fash on.” I hate it when they make up words like that. I hate it so much that I turn the commercial off and I refuse to go to Old Navy. I am sort of their target market since I could potentially buy their merchandise for my three children. If they’re just looking for people to remember their commercial, they’ve succeeded; however, they failed in garnering a recurrent customer in me.
Another one I saw just recently was a commercial for the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Their catch phrase or tag line — it certainly wasn’t a Unique Positioning Statement in the truest sense — is, “New Mexico, come full circle.” That phrase is repeated in several segments throughout the 30-second spot. What does that mean — come full circle? See, that’s what I’m talking about; advertisers think we’re idiots. They don’t think we’re going to question a tag line like that? Unless I’m missing something critical, I just don’t get it. Come full circle. Start in New Mexico and end in New Mexico? If they’re trying to get people to visit or move there — which is what most chambers do — they’ve missed their mark. If you know something about this that makes sense, I’d love to hear about it.
I truly don’t spend a lot of time watching television but I often listen to the radio while shuttling my son to and from school and I have decided mentally-challenged marketers write local commercials. Some are so bad I have to turn the station, shut off the radio or slip in a CD. No kidding; there’s one local commercial that says their name no less than six times within close proximity of each other in the 15- to 30-second spot. It doesn’t even flow with the rest of the text. It’s like someone told them that people will remember your name if you say it often enough. Well, guess what? Not only do I turn off the commercial, I don’t even remember the name of the store! Talk about bad marketing. Even if I did remember the name, I’d probably avoid the store just because their commercial irritates me so much! Good job, advertisers!
