I really like the fun approach used in this commercial to illustrate the ad pitch. But the ad pitch for this campaign has some serious problems in my view, because it does nothing whatsoever to inform the viewer about what the product or service being advertised is or why we might want it. In fact, it’s just a snow job to potential clients, flattering their purported ingenuity, when in fact they know nothing whatsoever about these potential clients. (Or are they simply flattering the clients they already have in the hopes that they won’t leave?)
So are we to take it that the furniture craftsmen in this commercial are themselves SPDR investors? Because if they’re not, then the whole presentation is nothing more than a charade. It illustrates the point of someone using precision to do something, but the ad specifies SPDR investors will find precise ways to do things, but does not elaborate on what the hell that even means. It’s just a misdirection, turning our attention away from the fact they they’re not identifying the product or explaining why we’d want it, and as such it appears more as obfuscation than anything else. And this whole ad campaign seeks to distract us like this, so it makes me wonder what they’re trying to hide.
So this ad is really fun, seems smart, has panache, and is wonderfully creative in its presentation, but it rings hollow to me, because it does not enlighten us about what it’s selling. I know that advertising is intended to generate interest, but this particular ad merely generates interest in itself, and not in the product or service, and as such, I’m not so sure it’s a good ad for SPDR. But that’s not the ad’s fault; it’s the campaign’s fault. And I don’t think the campaign works well because it’s just an empty declaration of something nebulous that’s intended to flatter and distract. And that’s not a good strategy for selling anything, I don’t think.
This ad is a far better ad for the ad agency that made it than it is for SPDR.
It’s just smoke and mirrors. Nice, well-accomplished smoke and mirrors, but still, just smoke and mirrors. (But like I said before, it’s just going with the ad campaign concept, and as such, it’s great; it’s hard to get a better demonstration of that campaign concept than this. But I think the campaign concept is flawed, or else it’s trying to distract us from what we need to know: who is this company, what do they do, and why should we want it? Without that info, it’s just noise: beautifully executed noise, but still only noise, because as beautiful as it is, it would never make me want to do business with SPDR: and that’s the whole point of advertising.)
What would be fun to see is the table set, with its extra weight on the leaning side, succeed in knocking over the leaning tower. Then the ad could act like that was the purpose all along!
What would be fun to see is the table set, with its extra weight on the leaning side, succeed in knocking over the leaning tower. Then the ad could act like that was the purpose all along!
Here’s the creative commercial:
