Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Bad Advertiser, Bad!

I was home sick today; felt very odd as I was out of work at this time a year ago. I found myself going back into my regular pattern of watching the various "Star Trek" incarnations on Spike TV over the afternoon. This exposed me to two sets of commercials that used to get my goat and just continue to do so.

Vehix.com - So far I've seen three vehix commercials that go along these lines: two employees pitch their ideas to their dour boss. The first employee has crazy ideas of making their customers' computer more like a car; fuzzy dice on their monitor, a wheel-like mouse, et cetera. The second simply pitches "Vehix TV" which is full motion streaming video on vehix.com. Mind you, there are three spots here. And each time that second guy pitches the same idea. What is the problem here? Does his boss not like it? Is it too costly to implement? Does he have a dearth of creativity? Something is horribly awry here. That first guy keeps struggling to come up with innovations but that second guy just keeps kicking back and tossing out the same thing.

Travelocity - The "Travelling Gnome" spots make absolutely no sense to me. Yes, I know about the old prank but I'm talking about the spots themselves. We're presented with two "travel myths" which the gnome is determined to dispel. The first myth is always very business-like and ties into current specials that Travelocity wants to highlight. The second one usually has something to do with gnomes and their ability to travel. During the second myth we learn that the gnome is completely deluded and altogether ignorant. This is the part that causes me undo consternation. If the gnome is so wrong in that second myth, shouldn't the viewer then assume that he was wrong on the first one? Why should we believe an incompitent spokesperson? I know that these second scnarios are supposed to be comical for Travelocity but they call into doubt the entire commercial. At least a Joe Isuzu lied about everything and didn't tell the truth when it was convenient.

Yes, I know that this is all much ado about nothing but these kind of things bother the heck out of me.

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