MerrinDonahue.com

I don’t watch commercials anymore. I have no patience for them. I was watching 60 Minutes the other day, and they had a piece on “Undercover Marketing“. I can get on board with that. See, companies hire actors who then go out on the streets with whatever gadget needs to be promoted (say, a new video game glove), and they just start playing with it. People (targets) then come over to see, and the actors let them play a while. That’s it. You (the target) sees it as nothing more than a friendly exchange. The company who’s paying these actors sees it as an opportunity to create “buzz” about a new product. No stress, no hassle, no obligation. My kind of marketing.
That said, however, I feel I have to give props to a couple of commercials that, for some reason or another, I have actually happened to catch. Last spring, I noticed this one, and laughed my ass off for an hour afterwards. If all ads were this clever, I might be tempted to hit Play on my Tivo a little more often.
But what happens when you’re in your car? If you don’t have a CD playing (like I pretty much always do), or XM radio, then you’re forced to listen to the radio. Listening to the radio pretty much means listening to commercials (unless you’re listening to NPR, and there’s only so much Diane Rehm I can take). Fortunately, there are the California Cow commercials.
So there you have it. I guess the whole point is this: Stop trying to sell me something, unless you can do it without pressure. Or at the very least, be a little funny about it. I know ad agencies are up against the powerful wall of Tivo. Better start coming up with a plan B, fellas.