This one of my favorite ads from the 21st Century so far.
But in its current form, it’s longer than before, and it’s got a tag I had
never seen before.
Usually, I’m not a big fan of TV ad tags. Generally they
just do a job of overkill on whatever joke is in the ad so that it’s no longer
funny, or it becomes annoying. Not all ad tags are like that, but many, many of
them are. But that’s not the problem here.
The problem with the tag on this great Sears Optical ad is
simple: it kills the message of the ad, plain and simple. And what’s the
message? Why, if you can’t see anything, bad things will happen. But nothing
bad happens here: the raccoon sleeps in her bed, and it’s all super cute. And
so from what I can tell, this woman made a new friend. And wouldn’t this help
teach her cat not to ignore her calls if it has to spend the night outside?
No, if they want this tag to drive home the message of this
ad, it should show the woman’s kitchen trashed in the morning (like a real
raccoon would do), and then show her cat just outside the window looking in,
saying: “Meow?” See what I mean? The tag they have here is cute, but it doesn’t
make it look like we need to get glasses, now does it, because everything turns
out fine anyway without them.
Here’s the glasses gaffe tag:
