Larry the Ad Man's Blog

I hope you learn from my small business marketing and advertising tips.

"Advertising is to trade what Steam is to machinery" Thomas Cook.
It was an honor to be nominated for 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards.


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Television commercials can be puzzling?

Visa's marketing department also puzzles me. After watching a questionable television commercial for the last couple of weeks, I can not find a video file of the commercial online. Not on YouTube? Not on their website? Not anywhere. So that in itself is a lesson to the budding marketer of what NOT to do.

Now I have to describe the commercial in hopes you have seen it? It starts with a couple in their 30's with no kids, checking out at a store and pulling out their Visa card. Then the dream sequence begins. I'm sure the people behind them in line loved these two mental midgets being off in la la land? The dream begins with the couple on the back of a catamaran looking at a manatee or walrus describing it as an old dolphin, then along comes a dolphin, jumping out of the water and the man says "there's a young dolphin, I dont' want to be an old dolphin" and back to the store lineup and off they go.

So.. the point of the commercial? It looks as if they want you to think having a Visa card will get you dreaming of travel? But what I take away from it is they want their customers to be stupid and rude. Like the Pizza Pop commercial I spoke about in a Blog last year, it makes me want to NOT use their product if that's the level of intelligence they think their customers have. I have spoken to others who feel the same way. Yet Visa obviously spent a lot of money on producing the commercial and they run it quite frequently on CBC. They must have shown the commercial to focus groups? How does a commercial like this make it out of a system like that? I'd really love to hear your answers if you have any?

There seems a trend in television and radio commercials to portray people as stupid, especially males. Many times, I may not like the commercial, but I see the point, the appeal, and the humor to a certain market segment. So do 18-35 year old males find this Visa commercial funny? I wonder?? Until next time, I am Larry "The Ad Man". Happy Holidays to you and your family !

 After writing this, someone found it on YouTube, posted December 9th. NOT easy to find:

5 comments:

  1. I love this spot and went looking for it online, but all I can find is descriptions. Strange, maybe it's too new?

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  2. I agree with you about this VISA commercial being aimed at the stupid. I don't get any message that would make me want to get or use a VISA card.
    I hope they didn't pay an ad agency for this totally pointless TV moment!

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  3. I have been trying to find this commercial online for weeks. It's harlarious! I can't find it anywhere.

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  4. Just found it on you tube. Look up "visa Canada manatee"

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  5. Thanks Jenn1111. Post will be edited with the video added...

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