I just saw that SPDR Mosaic commercial again where the rich lady smashes a plate and then takes a piece of it into a museum and vandalizes a priceless mosaic with it. (A link to view this ad is at the bottom of this post.) I had plenty to say about this spot before*, because as it is, it completely rubs me the wrong way; but I just realized that there’s a way for this idea to work really well, if they just changed a couple of little things in it. I didn’t see it before because the ad itself is so full of problems that it completely sends the wrong message, and it simply blew my mind, so to speak. But on reassessment, I think it could be fixed.
Okay, here’s how to fix this ad: Rather than have the lady smash the plate with a hammer, have her accidentally drop the plate. When the plate smashes, she looks down at the broken pieces, is upset about it, but then she sees something that has caught her eye, and she looks intrigued. Then she bends down, has a eureka moment, and picks up a shard of the broken plate. This broken piece she takes into her living room, which she then proceeds to place into the space left by a missing piece of a mosaic of hers that’s on her own living room wall. The new shard fits perfectly into the empty space left by the originally missing piece, and performing this action makes her mosaic whole again. (But don’t show a maid in the house who has to clean the shattered plate up. Just skirt that issue completely, or else have her husband clean it up for her.)
See the difference? This shows that she’s found an important missing piece, etc., but that she’s not breaking the law, defacing museum property, intentionally smashing valuable dishes, forcing servants to clean up after her when she smashes stuff on purpose, etc. So this sends all the messages the original ad was intending to send, but without all the problems I wrote about earlier.
* Here is my original post about this spot, detailing everything I think is wrong with it:
And here’s the actual commercial:
