This is our country. This is our truck," my television repeats for the 4,742nd time. Apparently, I forgot to switch channels during the commercial break and have subjected myself to yet another Chevy commercial. Although hearing a distinctly American voice attempt to appeal to my patriotic side while John Mellencamp's "Our Country" plays in the background hasn't made me want to buy a Chevy truck yet, maybe hearing it 500 more times during the next two weeks will.
At least that is what Chevy's advertising campaign is hoping will happen. The strategy is simple. They don't focus on giving you any practical reasons to buy from them: They just try to push their way into your consciousness. They pound you with their ads over and over again during commercial breaks until their logo is practically burned into your retinas. Most of the time, their commercials are delivered in the most annoying, repetitive and uncreative ways imaginable. The worst part is that Chevy is not alone in this advertising practice, not at all.
GEICO has the gecko, cavemen and "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance" commercials. The latter presents itself as a commercial completely unrelated to car insurance and then delivers a twist at the end as it reveals itself as an ad for GEICO (although if you can't see these coming a mile away by now, I feel deeply sorry for you). TBS spent more time showing commercials for "Frank TV" than it did showing actual baseball during the playoffs this year. Budweiser has come up with countless commercials that attempt no more than to get a laugh out of viewers and hold their attention for 15-30 seconds. If you've ever seen a commercial for any of these companies, chances are you've seen a thousand.
Perhaps the most notoriously annoying and repetitive commercials in recent times have been for HeadOn. If you haven't seen any of these ads, well, I envy you. Either way, all you need to know is that HeadOn works by being applied to the forehead. Its commercial makes this fact painstakingly clear by repeating a sound clip that says "HeadOn! Apply directly to the forehead!" three times while a woman rubs what looks like a glue stick on her forehead. After that, the commercial cuts to an image of the product in its packaging along with a message stating that HeadOn is available without a prescription. The ad doesn't even say whether HeadOn is used for headaches, acne, hemorrhoids or for soothing discomfort caused by annoying ads on TV.
The commercial provides almost no information about the product and has no storyline, no humor, no creativity, no theme and no content besides that six-word phrase that's repeated three times. Yet, it has received rave reviews and has even been featured on primetime news and hailed as one of the most innovative and effective commercials ever. Wow. The irony is blinding.
That's it. I'm sick of these lame commercials. I'm not going to stand for this anymore -- not going to allow horrible commercials to succeed without a fight. In fact, I refuse to purchase or promote anything from HeadOn, Chevy or any other brand that shamelessly pushes stupid commercials down our throats. But ... wait. Aren't I already helping these dumb commercials by bringing attention to them in this article? Isn't all publicity good publicity, after all?
As far as most advertisers are concerned, if a commercial can grab your attention or get stuck in your head, it has accomplished its task. Whether you enjoyed it or retained any of its information is of secondary importance at best. If they can get even more attention by appearing in the news because of how annoying or repetitive they are, even better. Heck, GEICO even wound up getting a sitcom for the cavemen they had developed in their commercials. How's that for free advertising?
It's the truth: Stupid and repetitive commercials are often the most effective. To be honest, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. As long as people keep being persuaded by seeing ads over and over again, advertisers will keep showing them over and over again. While the outlook for advertising may be bleak, I do have some good news ... I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. And if you didn't see that coming, then maybe you need to watch more commercials.
Daniel's column runs biweekly Tuesday. He can be reached at mcnally@cavalierdaily.com.
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