Today, as every day, I had one of those Capital One “barbarian” ads interrupt my television viewing experience. Some of these ads can be fun, so I don’t mind so much. It’s really just the beat-you-on-the-head repetition that bothers me about any ad campaign. (Unless they’re really awful!) When even great, fun, hilarious ideas make you groan with annoyance, or even worse, make you make loud noises so as to avoid even hearing any little teensy part of whatever ad it is before you can reach the mute button on the remote, you know they’ve over-exposed you to their spot. Once I begin to feel openly hostile towards an ad or campaign, they’re really doing the opposite of what they’re intending to.
That’s not the problem here. Yet. At least not with this latest one. The thing about this Capital One campaign with the barbarian hordes that I find troubling is that it’s gone so far afield from its original intent, I wonder if anyone still remembers why the barbarians are even there anymore. Or even more concerning, what would a person who is just stumbling into this campaign now make of the whole thing?
This ad campaign began around ten or so years ago, and initially, the barbarian hordes were there as a metaphor for the draconian terms of other credit card companies, pillaging the consumer into penury. The idea was that the barbarian rabble was coming to sack a cardholder of all their valuables like they would a Roman village, but when the cardholder revealed that they had a Capital One card, the barbarians stopped in their tracks in abject, crestfallen depression because that credit card didn’t have the kinds of rates and terms that would allow them to rape you financially.
The whole thing is mean to barbarians, and should have been terminated by the human rights council long ago. And with the new credit card regulations passed by congress, the barbarian hordes will probably die of malnutrition in poverty, forced to pillage and eat each other. In fact, the new regulations should completely obviate the whole meaning of the barbarian threat in these ads, and as such ought to kill the campaign. At least, that’s what I’m led to believe anyway. The fact is that the credit card regulation bill jacked up my APR from 6% to 20%, and killed all of the other benefits I was enjoying, just like the “Affordable Care Act” immediately skyrocketed my health insurance rates by $80 per month as a result of its passage. So much for government help! If they’d just butt out from now on I’d be much more appreciative. Every time these government bozos “solve” some “problem”, it ends up costing me a lot more money for nothing! Jerks!
Sorry about that… Anyway, ever since the initial setup for this Capital One ad campaign, they’ve just had the barbarian hordes bouncing around from vacation hotspot to resort destination, taking guided tours and buying trinkets and stuff, dressed in their fur pelts and armor and stuff. But what if you missed the initial setup that revealed the reason that we’ve got Visigoth warriors running around Disneyland, etc., in the first place? Would you be confused and tune the whole campaign out? I think it’s likely, frankly. And if that’s the case, they’re not doing themselves any favors.
