Advertising | The Odd and Unmentionable

(Update: For those people wondering who the actress is in this commercial, she’s Jama Williamson who has a recurring guest role on Parks and Rec.)

Notice of change: The holiday is now called Bestbuymas. (Term comes from Paul in comment 289. My thanks.)

What in the world was the management of Best Buy thinking here? This offends me. It offended the hubster. It offended Beloved Daughter and her boyfriend. It offended everyone in our extended family who had to sit and watch it during an otherwise fantastic college football game Thanksgiving night. They’re actually dissing Santa Claus if you can believe it. Here…you can watch for yourself:

What strikes me as wrong?

1) The message of the commercial seems to be that Santa Claus…Mr. Spirit of Christmas himself…is now not only inferior to a retail, big box electronics store, but pathetic and unnecessary.

2) It’s like a weirdly inverted Grinch Who Stole Christmas, only this time they’ve turned Mom into the Grinch. Mom. Now that’s twisted.

3) The woman in the commercial is not only mean to Santa, she doesn’t even like her own dog enough to fill its stocking. Evidently, only those members of the family who can consume electronics merchandise count in her home.

4) Santa Claus is the mythical embodiment of generosity, tolerance, and good will to all. His gifts are free. Beating up on Santa is like beating up on charity. Who’s next in the crosshairs? Toys for Tots? And worst of all, they’re doing this during an economic downturn when one out of every five children is living in poverty and more than a third of our population is struggling on a low income. It’s tasteless.

5) They seem to be championing materialism again. Did they somehow miss the last three years?

6) They’re running these commercials during prime time when little kids are watching TV. I’m glad my kids are grown so I don’t have to explain to them both that I know you love Santa, honey. Of course, I’ll still let him come to our house.

Now don’t get me wrong here. I think Best Buy is a great company. I like their brand and our family has bought big ticket electronic items from them in the past, with no regrets. We’d go again in the future, too…but not as long as they’re running this unfortunate ad. I think they took a big risk here…which I respect, risks are necessary…but I think this time it was a big mistake. That’s how it struck our family anyway.

Anybody else have an opinion on this one? I’d be interested to hear what other people think. (And for those who enjoy this style of humor and disagree with my take on the commercial, here’s an alternative post you’ll probably prefer. Go and be happy there. I don’t think any of you are soul-less. I dislike the commercial, NOT you!)

(Update 2: And here’s a head’s up from commenter Jen: After a series of similar themed commercials, Best Buy has now come out with one that may be closer to what they wanted to convey all along. At least it seems that way to me. There’s finally at least a little give and take going on between parties, which makes it look more like a gift giving competition that Mom is trying to win rather than a situation where she’s being intentionally cruel to someone who’s trying to do some good. It sounds a little more like teasing and less like abuse. The name calling still really turns me off, but I get that it’s part of the set up for Santa’s response. I laughed at the end where she’s giggling. It’s a big step up from the usual look of contempt. Thanks Jen!)

copyright Dia Osborn 2011

Linda over at Rangewriter wrote an insightful post titled What is the deal with women’s nipples? where she looked at, among other things, T.V.’s inconsistent censorship of different parts of human anatomy. It’s an interesting read. The following thread began on topic but eventually wandered off into rants about commercials…which caught my attention because I totally share their sentiment. It seems pretty much all of us loathe commercials. In fact, we dislike them so much that we develop strategies and often purchase/rent expensive hardware just to avoid them. But of course advertisers know this and are growing ever more cunning in their attempts to trap us into watching them anyway.

In a way it’s amusing. Our viewing behavior reminds me of octopuses. Linda also recently tipped me off to a fascinating article titled Deep Intellect which explores the amazing intelligence of these creatures and how recent discoveries are causing scientists to rethink what they know about intelligence in general. At one point the author describes how octopuses in a research center resisted being taken out of their tanks to be tested in a maze.

“Some octopuses did not like being removed from their tanks. They would hide. They would squeeze into a corner where they couldn’t be pried out. They would hold on to some object with their arms and not let go.

Some would let themselves be captured, only to use the net as a trampoline. They’d leap off the mesh and onto the floor—and then run for it. Yes, run. “You’d chase them under the tank, back and forth, like you were chasing a cat,” Warburton said. “It’s so weird!” “

When I think about how hard we try to escape the commercials that advertisers try and trap us with, I can’t help but think of the octopuses. We’ve been quite industrious and creative in our attempts. We started by going off to other rooms during breaks but advertisers just turned up the volume on commercials. Then someone invented the mute button. Then someone went one better and invented TiVo so we could first record and then fast forward right through the ads. Everyone at some point uses commercial breaks to just go off and do other things. In fact, this behavior is so well known it’s taken for granted. At a recent Weight Watchers meeting, the handout (distributed to WW meetings nationwide) suggested using commercials to get up and do sit-ups, speed walk around the house, jump rope, or otherwise exercise. Avoidance of commercials has become institutionalized.

The predator/prey relationship that’s developed with modern advertising (actually, it’s starting to feel a bit like stalking) seems short sighted to me. Why don’t advertisers, rather than trying to hunt us down and pin our eyelids open, just make better commercials? Something that people want to watch? We all know they can do it. There are some amazing commercials out there, ads we enjoy because they educate/enlighten/move/entertain us. For example, the commercials made for the Super Bowl each year have become one of the highlights of the game…they even have their own spin-off show.

Advertisers need to realize that it’s not that we don’t want to watch commercials, it’s that we don’t want to watch boring commercials. They’re perfectly capable of giving us something valuable in return for our attention…a fair and reasonable exchange which most people could get behind. And if they did I imagine it would go a long way towards developing some brand loyalty instead of making us want to avoid a company as much as we want to escape their annoying ads.

Here are a couple of my personal favorites, commercials that I would not only willingly watch during a break in any TV show, I would (and did) hunt them down on the internet to watch again afterwards of my own volition. (Not to mention feature them in a blog post.)

First, this thought provoking commercial from Carlsberg Beer: The Bikers

Second, a mythically humorous one from Toyota: Shoot it!

Third, pure fantasy from James Boag’s Draught: Pure Waters (Beer makers as a group seem to already understand what I’m talking about.)

Fourth, some amazing innovative design from Audi: Audi RS6

And then of course, there is my personal all time favorite, this inspirational commercial from Pantene: The Violinist

This, of course, is only a tiny example of the excellence our advertisers are capable of. The Clio Awards are given each year for the best in advertising in all forms of media, the world over. You can see some of the other excellent commercials that have won in previous years in this small sample on AEF, the Advertising Educational Foundation.