How do allegedly reputable companies still manage to buy TV ad time that uses unintelligble children?

Question

I mean, I'm sitting here watching Meet the Press. AIG has an ad on TV. Four kids sitting around a table and they all mumble like little jerks. I mean, I guess I remembered it was an AIG commercial, so in some respects it worked, but I have no idea what it was about. I experience this a lot on the radio, too. Can't a company with an international profile think up anything better? The thing that kills me, is that some ad agency not only pitched that commercial, but somebody at AIG bought it! Talk about an easy pay day. Reminds me of that movie with Dudley Moore about an ad agency.

Answer 1

Very funny, the movie is called crazy people... and I remember it well.  Not because of Dudley but because of Daryl Hannah... woo hoo!!!

I too am constantly amazed at the c**p agencies dish out on a daily basis but if it wasn't for bad taste these agencies wouldn't be in business.

As the owner of a virtual ad agency, I've seen amazing ideas get torn apart and watered down so that they become similar to what you are describing above.

If you're interested in reading about some examples of great creative work, check out my blog at http://www.creativeservices.org

Answer 2

Absolutely! Half the time I can't understand them either. But then, a lot of commercials that use adults don't make much sense either - and I can understand the words. It's just the concept of the commercial that eludes me - like, how is

THAT going to convince anyone to buy the product? Quite honestly, commercials with kids endorsing products don't really work for me, on any level, because I don't think kids are great authorities on anything (other than fun foods that kids like to eat, but which may or may not be good for them)

Strange and wonderful things go on in the minds of the advertising moguls and I guess they manage to convince their customers that they know the best way to capture customers. Which must be a pretty tough selling job to begin with.....

Answer 3

You ought to write the company and tell them your impression of their commercial.  They like to know such things.  They usually run ads about products through market research; however, television has dumbed down so many people that they might have gotten good reviews in their market research.  Personally, I've noticed most commercials these days use incorrect English and their subjects don't match their verbs.  It's as though either the copywriters don't know good English or they talk down to the population because they think we are stupid.