Sunday, August 24, 2008

Understanding Ads

There are some ads that make you go "huh?" and you spend precious minutes trying to work out why some advertising executive would have pitched and some marketing executive would have agreed to some approaches.

Case in point:


In case you can't be bothered watching it (and really, if you are Australian and saw some Olympics, then you have seen this one 1000 times) - its "The Stalker" ad courtesy of Jim Beam, where a rather attractive woman and obsession fill your screen for 90% of the time, and Jim Beam is the tag line.

And indeed, it has made us go "huh" many an evening so far - but we think we have cracked it...

It is either
  1. advising Jim Beam drinkers that if they ply a pickup with enough of their bourbon, the truth serum will elicit all sorts of truths and they can dodge the bullet of a crazy woman; or
  2. advising Jim Beam drinkers that if they ply a pickup with enough of their bourbon, the truth serum will elicit all sorts of truths and they can finally find the crazy woman of their dreams.

Which, of course, moved us into discussing bourbon drinkers we have known and we discovered that there is the crazy girlfriend common denominator - nice to see that the advertising industry has finally embraced "truth-in-advertising" isn't it?

And then we realised that the crazy girlfriends have all had a commonality also - their boyfriends were nutcases.

Now off to cook Sunday breakfast and work on my new thesis - what alcoholic beverage goes with "looking after other people's children" sort of crazy...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I decided the ad was giving us a parralel.

The woman is gorgeous, looks like a man's wet dream, most mens fantasy. In actual fact she is a nut bag and speaks like a psychotic child.

The JB bottle is attractive, looks enticing, but actually has content that taste like crap and leave you jabbering like a psychotic child after consuming the content.

Alison said...

And people wonder why I don't have a television.
OMG. That ad is pathetic.
I'm going to add a number 3. though -
Their target audience is obviously male, so the first 90% of the ad is aimed at their penises. The last 10% waves their product in front of their faces, possibly targeting the brain on top of their shoulders? Probably in the hope that now they have the penis on board (so to speak) the man will have no choice but to follow it's lead (again, so to speak).

All of this really just proving the point that I have to get out more. lol

Jayne said...

Scotch for looking after other people's children.
It numbs the pain ;)

Debby said...

How about this?

'You'd better stick to bringing home a bottle.'

Debby said...

Tim's take: Men are driven by what they see. They see a 'hottie' and a bottle of Jim Beam. The two become inexorably connected in their minds.

Me: But what about what she was saying?

Tim: I couldn't understand her.

*sigh*

jeanie said...

Rhubarb Whine - I love that!!!

Alison - ah, you ain't missing much really.

Jayne - I chose whine. whine, whine, whine, whine, whine.

Debby - good call. And lots of laughter at Tim's take - her mouth is open and sound is coming out, but JB obviously helps numb that...

ALEXANDRA POPOVIC said...

You know what I found reallly annoying about this ad? Not the "huh" factor but her OTT ocker accent!

Have I been away from Oz shores too long? Alex ;)

Anonymous said...

LOL. I think you may have this one figured out. The "hottie factor" is a big one in any advertising. My husband's company sells trucks...I'm talking enormous semi-trailer trucks..and at their recent convention, they had women in evening gowns greeting the buyers. These buyers were from dealerships...not just bubba wanting to buy a truck. Go figure. I don't have the glands to apreciate them!