Excellence

Since I started this blog, I've been hearing the same general query from people I know:

"You realize advertisements are meant to sell products, right?"

And the answer, naturally, is yes. The point to critiquing advertisements has less to do with my desire for entertainment than it does my desire for excellence.

For a great many companies, television advertisements leave the first and most lasting impressions of their brand on buyers. Why have excellent advertising? Well, the same reason you demand excellence from any other portion of your image. The greatest professional axiom I've heard decries that in order to attain success, one most project the image of success.

The "awesome commercial" is a rare breed of advertisment. It conveys an image of the company presenting it which is favorable, sometimes chic, sometimes cutting edge, sometimes amusing. When you do your TV spots well, people remember you and your product fondly.

The converse, of course, is that advertising which is particularly horrendous and grating compels viewers to switch the channel, turn off the television or at the very least, hit the mute button. If advertising gets to the point where potential buyers are so harassed by its mediocrity that they refuse even to endure it, the promotional message is lost and wasted.

The trick, then, is to make people want to watch your ads. There is much fuss about TiVo killing advertising as we know it. This is utter bullshit. TiVo lets people do what they've been doing anyway, only with greater flair. Some people love to watch ads. But only the good ones. A friend of mine mentioned just the other day, in response to my blog on Office Max, that he often watches the Rubber Band Man spot three or four times every time it comes up on his TiVo.

This is seduction. When you craft an ad that is so good that people actively search for and enjoy it, either on their PVR or on the web, you've done exactly what your client has always needed. You've put their brand in demand.

There are good ads, bad ads and excellent ads. This blog exists because the contrast between the three creates an at times unexpected passion in the victims of the marketing shootout.

We have a right expect and demand excellence in all that we consume. Advertisers who fail to provide excellence do so at their peril.