In this silly spot, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hires the TaxSlayer
knight as part of his racing crew, and he gives the knight various tasks to see
where he might fit in. So the knight can’t pump tires, apply decals to racing
cars, or even do janitorial work (I hate to state the obvious, but maybe it’s
all that armor that’s making doing stuff difficult for the knight? How about
having him go joust someone, or slay a dragon or something?), but then Dale
gets a brainwave and has the knight do his tax return. Because knights are
well-known for their tax consultation acumen, right?
This idea seems all wrong to me. I mean, it’s called TaxSlayer, right? So how about having some
guy who is about to be audited call the band Slayer, and they show up, play
pounding thrash metal, and when the IRS shows up, their heads explode from the
music, saving this guy from the audit? That might be kind of fun.
But with that name and knight mascot I’m surprised they
don’t just have the knight guy go to the IRS and slay them. (That’s probably
many indebted people’s secret revenge fantasy anyway, right?) He could just be
shown walking into the IRS office building, we hear screams and fighting sound
effects, and then the knight comes out of the building with his armor all
dented and wiping something off of his sword.* Now wouldn’t that accurately
depict what they’re going for with using the name “TaxSlayer” anyway? (And if
not, then what do they mean?)
But all jokes aside (No, I really don’t think it’s a good
idea to show a tax-preparation company’s corporate mascot killing IRS agents in
a TV ad. But I do think it would be a
very popular commercial, at least with some segments of the population,
especially Republicans.), this is a kinda cute ad with the knight (although it
doesn’t make a lot of sense). And after all, a knight generally suggests bloody
violence and stuff, doesn’t it? So if they don’t want us to think of bloody
violence, I suppose they have to do something to distract us from thinking
about that (but then why call their company TaxSlayer?). Although he still
wields a sword, so I still can’t help but think of him slaying IRS agents. It’s
just the undercurrent of the whole slayer/knight concept, no matter how you,
um, slice it (with a sword, I guess).
But how about this as a promotional idea: They could make
and give away free to all of their customers a video game where the TaxSlayer
corporate knight mascot literally goes into bloody battle with the legions of
the Internal Revenue Service, which are like orcs and other evil fantasy
creatures in business suits carrying briefcases. Then, after dispatching the
orc auditor army, our bold heroic TaxSlayer knight (through video game play)
would go lay siege to their castle, which would be a stand-in for the IRS headquarters.
And once inside the castle, the knight would have to slay a huge, vicious
dragon personifying the IRS. Now wouldn’t that be fun, for frustrated tax
filers?
And actually, this idea of the TaxSlayer knight mascot
slaying a dragon with “Taxes” or “Tax Troubles” or “Tax Forms” written across
its chest (or even have the dragon made out of tax forms, with different parts of the dragon covered with
different tax forms: that would work beautifully!) might be a better use of
this knight character for a TV commercial, or even a print ad. Don’t you think
so?
Here’s the tax-slaying spot:
* (P.S.: This is just a joke, based upon this ad with the
knight and the name “TaxSlayer”.)
