30 Seconds of Fame

Insurance companies have some of the best ads in my opinion. Some of these commercials are so clever and creative. Some have nothing to do with insurance but somehow they work! Geico and Farmers are definitely two of my favourite. With Geico you always remember their slogan constantly used "15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance" and of course the famous mascot, the gecko himself. I quite enjoy those with satiric connotations and and the jingles we could never forget. "We are Farmers" (I can't sing it for you here but at the end of the commercial you can hear it lol) always sticks in my head. I find myself singing the ad to myself several hours after I have turned off the TV. Talk about marketing and advertising strategies!!

I recently had a bit of a revelation when I was trying to find something to watch on TV. Yogurt is the official food of women apparently. I'm going to go ahead and say that a solid 99.9% of yogurt ads are targeted at women and feature women/groups of women. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, when yogurt is around we flock to it like a moth to a flame. Women can't wait to sit around and gossip about life whilst eating yogurt. 

Which made me think, in the commercial world, men don't eat yogurt. In some cases, they don't even see yogurt when it's in their own fridge. (check out Mr.Blind-to-life below)


Now I personally know a few men who eat yogurt so this is the part where the questions started rolling in.

Do they have to hide it in a paper bag if they want to eat it in public? Do they ask a woman to buy it for them at the grocery store? Is artificial fruit offensive to men? Does it burn them if they touch it? Is it like a sixth sense and only some men can see it?

I'm sure that eventually there will be commercials promoting yogurt for men but until then, I did stumble across something called Brogurt (Unfortunately there's no commercial for it just yet. Maybe they couldn't get Chuck Norris on board for it or something). It's everything a man could want from a yogurt. Instead of a measly 6 ounces, it holds a Herculean 8 ounces. I was shocked that the flavours didn't include whiskey, cigars, gun powder and bacon though.

Although, let's be fair. There are fairly recent Oikos Yogurt commercials that feature a man eating yogurt. Alas, that man is John Stamos (aka Uncle Jesse from Full House). I'm going to go ahead and say two things here; 1. Have mercy and 2. My point still stands. John Stamos in these commercials is in no way supposed to be pulling in male buyers. I'm sure he could though but that's another blog post. All I see is that women are inappropriately ravenous for yogurt.



As a woman, I just thought I had to post about this strange phenomenon. I can't be too sarcastic because I do understand that it's target marketing. Yogurt is associated with being healthy and weight loss which ties straight into the female demographic and so on and so forth. I just don't want men to think that all we eat is low fat yogurt and granola bars.

I also felt like the men who eat yogurt were getting the short end of the stick in the commercial world. Imagine some guy was so affected by the lack of seeing men in yogurt commercials, that he had to eat his yogurt quietly in the bathroom stall at work or something. 

Classic Gaming Inspires Modern Advertising.

The first time I heard this ad, my head snapped up from my kindle and I smiled until the end.

The melody they used was an altered version of the infinitely popular Mario game, which in itself is an attractive sound; the fact that the actor went through the store like a level of that classic game made it even better.

Chase Freedom's inspired advertising made me want to go shopping for home goods stuff and I don't even own a house! The execution was well done and it was a very put together ad, sure to attract the youngest and the oldest's attentions as the musicality of a video game always does.

They used familiarity, fondness and played on people's sense of adventure with this fun ad; let's hope they keep up this attention grabbing, entertaining campaign.

Poke-Smalta????



Smalta... Your product did not necessarily need an ad. This product has been around long enough and has enough recognition to sell itself. That being said... why? Why the wholesale ripoff  of the Pokemon opening theme? I played the ad then I played the Pokemon theme... uncanny! But there were positives, the animation was excellent. I'm not sure what demographic the commercial was supposed to appeal to though; save for the 'brown' superheroes, local culture was not represented. I understand the hero concept may be appealing to children, but seriously aliens, meteors! Also the execution of the jingle, when the children were singing, was a bit difficult to understand. I had to replay it several times.

It is indeed very troubling that local commercial houses continuously sample the works (music & concept) of its foreign counterparts. I sincerely hope its not because we lack creativity, but then Carnival has become one huge recycle project.

So to Trinitoons... the executor of this commercial, you were on point with the animation, but nothing else.

This type of executional framework is where a customer is presented in an ad speaking about his/her experience with the product. We've all asked family and friends, or even someone next to us in the shopping aisle, about a product we're considering buying. If we get a positive review it's basically word-of-mouth advertising and brands have tapped into this common experience by creating testimonial ads.


The testimonial may come from an actual customer or a participant in a focus group and there is a credibility that comes with hearing from someone who has used the product giving their personal opinion. This type of ad can work for just about any type of product or service. Services like exercise/weight-loss programs are well known for this:




When you're promoting a service, or just a product like a DVD where the value is not in the physical  item, a testimonial type ad is a very effective way to go.

So do you like ads like this? Would you go out and shop on the advice from a testimonial ad? I have to say I'm pretty sold on the 28 Day Challenge DVD.

PS. Check out Kimberly's post from last week featuring a very clever testimonial ad.

Heineken hit marketing gold in 2013 with their "Departure Roulette" commercial. They tempted JFK travelers to ditch their plans, open their world and take a free trip to an unknown destination. Some people seemed wary and others had plans they just couldn't break but in the end, Heineken managed to coerce a few people into taking an impromptu trip of a lifetime. Check it out below!

Drop everything. Push button. Commit to:



This commercial spread like wildfire around the internet because there's just so much goodness about it that it's hard to not share it. 

In these times, a commercial that becomes a viral video is marketing heaven. It's a competitive industry and Heineken managed to blow the competition out of the water with this one. Generally, these types of ads (ones where they give things away to unsuspecting people) are always a hit. It's probably because it gives you this overwhelmingly good feeling watching people being nice to each other for a change.

Oddly enough, the commercial has nothing to do with the beer but Heineken is smart enough to know how to sell an experience and not just the beverage; after all, the slogan is "open your world" and what goes great with a spontaneous trip to somewhere exotic? A nice cold Heineken of course.

Apart from being extremely jealous, I was wondering if Heineken provided more than the surprise flight for the travelers. It turns out the offer also included $2,000 for expenses and two free nights in a hotel. Not too shabby for a regular day at the airport if you ask me.

Heineken even upped the ante by making a "Departure Roulette 2" (check that out here). This time, the people who enjoyed, tweeted and commented on the first video got a chance to hit the button, pack their bags and head out too. It shows how in tune Heineken is with their customers and this also gives them another opportunity to shine in the commercial, viral video stratosphere. Satisfying the customers at all angles gives these commercials the upper hand and a hearty round of applause from me.

This ad is...weird; pigeons are (usually) associated with pests (and ick) so the choice of bird is odd...and that oddness adds to the effectiveness of their message. The company seeks to highlight the cons and propose that they are more than capable of supplying the pros of their service through their brand.

This method of ad, what I think of as indirect direct marketing, is entertaining, engaging persons and getting the point across to everyone. The ad itself isn't rushed or overdone, giving the company the ability to touch on points of interest the public may and do have; it's like they're selling you a story without asking you to buy the book.

Ronald McDonald? Endorsing Taco Bell? This is just crazy.

I must say that this commercial deeply impacted me. Not only was it hilarious, but it used one of its greatest competitors to endorse its products in such a clever way. Kudos to Taco bell for this ad. I thought it was brilliant. Ads such as these really set the bar high for creativity.

Well done Ronald !

McDonald's welcome ad to Trinidad.

I absolutely love this commercial for several reasons. Firstly, while they kept the foreign visuals, I like that a local voice was used ensuring a connection to Trinbagonians. Unlike a lot of other commercials, McDonald's menu took centre stage with the human element in a supporting role.The backdrop reflected our local environment and the incorporation of the McDonald's signature score with the steelband was beautiful.
Overall an excellent commercial.

I don't know how many of you are old enough to have seen any of these on television but check them out and let us know how many of these you recognise. Bonus points if you remember the Kirpalani's stores.

There are so many ads available today that most times you time yourself to do things in 30-60 second bursts so you don't miss any of your favourite shows (also a lovely contributor to ADD and ADHD *smirk*)

Some ads though... make no sense; granted, many ads can't make sense outside of the product or service they're promoting. But what about ads that don't even relate to their product?

I'm referring to perfume ads: lots of pretty faces and bodies, expensive clothes, toys (yachts, sports cars etc) with a catchy score - usually popular music - and nothing more; perfume ads are basically models frolicking about randomly as though struck with the St. Vitus' Dance syndrome.


So what is there to make these ads worth the watch?

For me, the it's the music; they (sometimes) use some really great tracks (mostly oldies and remixes) that I end up really liking. Unfortunately, I am hardly ever overwhelmed to purchase the perfume (actually never) but I do go in search of the songs and increase my music library.

Coco Chanel won't get another sale, but The Zombies gained another fan from the latest perfume ad with the indescribable (because I'm not quite sure I like her) Keira Knightley.

Here's a little tip you can use when viewing ads: find the framework. The executional framework is the style of advertising a company uses to promote their product. The framework employed gives an idea of how the company wishes to position their product, as what works for one may not work for another. For example if the product is something serious like a medication they may use a doctor giving statistics in the ad or if it's something entertainment related they may employ a celebrity instead. Each of those examples belongs to a different framework we'll look at later on but first let's look at something a little... cuter.

I'll be basing my reviews on the framework chosen for each ad I look at and first up is: Animation!

CocaCola's clumsy bear invites us to open happiness.

What makes animation a great choice for CocaCola is its mass appeal. CocaCola is an international brand selling a very well known product. They tend to create advertising that focuses on brand awareness and brand identity. Using animation allows them to appeal to any demographic - since the main character doesn't necessarily belong to any specific race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. - and simply convey a happy/upbeat feeling being associated with the brand. The clumsy bear doesn't even speak so there is no language barrier, this ad can be used anywhere in the world just by switching out the "open happiness" tagline in the last few frames in non-English speaking countries.

Do you think the animation works for CocaCola here? Did watching this ad make you feel like Clumsy Bear opened happiness?

 There is a more technical ad that talks about the motion control features, but for someone who prefers straight-to-the-point information, this ad is perfect and entertaining too. Chickens are by no means a fun animal, with their serious expressions (all birds to me look like they're just waiting for you to try something lol), but coupled with the music track and the simplicity their little dance affords to such a technical explanation is, in my books, worth the 30 seconds (53 in this case lol) of fame.

The television commercial, or TVC as the professionals call it, has become one of the most ubiquitous types of advertising. We spend so much time watching TV that the advertising has become noting more than background noise for most of us. Knowing this, many advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to get and keep our attention so we decided to create this blog to review and analyse the old and the new.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the visual and auditory aspects of both foreign and local television commercials. Our posts will seek to give critical insights from varying vantage points; we will be analysing content, visual appeal, audio appeal, and relevance and suitability to intended audience. So as they say, "lights, camera... analysis!"

Let's kick off this show with an introduction to our contributors. We've each chosen one of our favourite ads to share with you. Enjoy!


I love this ad simply because of the style and the soundtrack (who doesn't love Pavarotti??) to promote their luxury vehicle; I'm not a fan of Kia, but if I met Morpheus, I would buy one! Can you spot the lady in red? ^_<