Too much information.
I have two favorite commercials right now. I like them because they make me laugh, and they don’t tell me more than I need to know.
The first is from Kaiser Permanente promoting healthy lifestyles for children. The other is for a Toyota dealership. Both could have been really boring, crammed with lots of factual information. But neither says anything about the product.
In the Toyota spot, the customer – who has just purchased a new car – is so excited about putting the new key on her keychain, she accidentally sprays the salesman with Mace and then misinterprets his reaction as excitement. The Kaiser Permanente spot features a great little actor renouncing his former life of debauchery against flashbacks of him as a couch potato, video game addict, and soda binger. He’s so sincere. It’s so absurd. So what does this tell me about the importance of helping children cultivate healthy habits? Everything I need to know without any of the guilt or doom. And what have I learned about Toyotas? That buying one is a total rush.
Of course helping kids cultivate healthy habits isn’t a joke. And before you buy a car you need to know safety ratings, MPG, and costs. These spots are funny. They give me the opportunity to think for myself. I don’t resent the interruption. I remember them. And when the time comes to make a decision about a car or health insurance, they will be on my list.
As both a consumer and a writer, I wish more advertisers worked like this.
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