Saturday 10 November 2007

Tennis

I've got a confession to make. I take TV adverts far too seriously (for reference, see my earlier post on Vinny Jones).

Some TV ads are designed to make you laugh - e.g. the Peter Kay John Smiths Bitter 'No Nonsense' ones. Others are designed to get people talking - e.g. WTF does a gorilla drumming along to Phil Collins, have to do with a poxy bar of chocolate?! Some are spectacular and clever; for example I really like the Honda choir advert (although one guy I work with called it "a pile of pretentious wank").

On the other hand, some adverts are bloody awful, mainly because they don't fall into any of the above categories. Two ads immediately spring to mind....one of them deserves a post all of its own (Picture Loans), so I'll save that one for later.

The one ad I do dislike is for Optical Express. You know the one, it's for the laser eye surgery people, with 95 year old men skiing down mountains, a bloke helping his son learn to ride a bike, a happy elderly couple being able to see flowers & trees for the first time in their lives. On the face of it, it's a fairly inoffensive piece of advertising.

No. It's fluffy nonsense, and the part of the advert that annoys me every time I see it is the clip of that Chinese bird playing tennis and seemingly returning a winner across the court.

It's bollocks. This is a woman who has never picked up a tennis racket before in her life. Clearly, she's only pretending to strike a ball - because there sure as hell isn't a ball in view. Then you see her give a smug, clenched fist "Yes!" when her shot supposedly beats her non existent opponent. All I am asking for is a little bit of realism in ads. Bearing in mind the slow-mo speed of the clip, there is no way that in the time between her hitting the ball, and her jubilant celebration, that the ball would have travelled further than the net. Perhaps she doesn't realise the rules... "Yes, I've scored a goal! Back of the net!!"

Who knows, one day I might consider laser eye corrective surgery, I've heard some positive things about it. But I'm more likely to spend my money with a company that doesn't waste their money on glib TV advertising, that treats it's potential customers like Muppets.

Give me the John Smiths style of advertising any day of the week. Peter Kay, throwing a pair of specs in the bin saying "Laser eye surgery - for 400 quid, helps you see better. Have it!" No nonsense!

1 comment:

Simon said...

Calm down dear, its only a commercial!