Monday, November 06, 2006

Fold it like a man?

Perhaps you've seen Domino's new commercial for its Brooklyn Style Pizza. It shows a handful of stereotypical New Yorkers - Italian mama's boy, Italian mama's boy's mom, cabbie, rude passenger.

The cabbie looks out his window and testifies that to eat the Brooklyn Style Pizza properly, apparently, one must fold the slice in half. He proceeds to do just that, though it's still mostly flat.

The rude passenger in the back, a female, looks out her window, conveniently on the same side.

"You call that a fold?" she asks. "Fold it like a man!"

Let's think about this for just a second: She's worried about how her cabbie is folding his pizza. Seems to me there could be more pressing things to be concerned with: traffic jams - you know how it is in the Apple - or getting to appointment on time.

Or maybe she should be more worried about a more fundamental problem: Just why in the hell her cabbie is peddling pizza and not driving. I can't imagine he was kind enough to shut down the meter, you know?

Am I reading too much into it? Of course. But it's one of a series of ads lately that annoy me. I can't get that damn woman out of my head. Fold it like a man! Perhaps she ought to pass that advice onto the clown who's living out of his Sentra for a week. I bet laundry's a bitch in a sedan.

The ad agencies must consider this a success. After all, I'm writing about their ads - more importantly, I'm remembering them. That's supposedly the goal, to get you to remember a certain product.

But why should that be the goal?

What if certain commercials annoy me? Has the ad agency really accomplished what it set out to do?

I can assure you that my business relationship with a certain other pizza delivery place will continue, due in part to the fact that the Domino's commercial bugs the hell out of me.

As for that idiot in the Sentra: If I were in the market for a car (I'm not), I'd want an SUV. And if for some reason I'd want a smaller car, I can assure you I'd steer clear of Nissan because that time of annoying advertising does not deserve to be rewarded.

It's gotten to the point that as soon as I hear "Hey, it's Mark again..." I flip the damn channel. Even if it means I have to watch those grating Empire Today ads.

We have 128 channels and by God, one of them won't have a commercial on.

If you're listening, ad folks, remember: people can just as easily be turned off to your product as they can be turned on. I realize that makes you walk a fine line, but hey, I'm the consumer. I've got the power, no matter how limited it may be.

Now get to tiptoeing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As someone whose emphasis in college was advertising/PR...

Remember this... for every person who finds the ad annoying, there's another who loves it. And as long as you remember my product, I've done my job!

That being said, haven't seen the Dominoes one. I'll have to look for it.

Anonymous said...

I to dislike the Dominoes ad. If they are trying to sell more pizza I hope it works for them. Me on the other hand like the other pizza place anyway!

Stormy said...

I don't have a Papa John's near me.

Can we at least agree that as bad as any of these ads may be, they are at least better than any political ad.

I approved this message.

Brian said...

Matt, I was mostly venting about the political ads, I think, and used Domino's as a vehicle. (That said, I've thoroughly enjoyed Michael Steele's ads. Search him on YouTube. The best was one we saw last night, a tongue-in-cheek ad with two of his sons.)

PJ, I guess what I'm not getting is this: What if I remember your product but think negatively of it because I associated it with a commercial I didn't like?

I know that it's their job to get something to stick in my mind. But to me, that seems to fall short of the ultimate goal - to get me to buy the product. I honestly can't say what would entice me to buy something from an ad, so maybe I'm just taking shots in the dark.

Does that make any sense?

Anonymous said...

dare i mention? you're moaning that she's complaining about something aside from her ride, which -- p.s. -- could take more than 15 minutes. as a native brooklynite, i feel safe in saying that many of us hometown folk feel free to comment on plenty of stuff that out-of-towners might consider out of place. feel free to consider that as part of your authentic nouveau 'brooklyn experience'.

in the immortal phrase from 'moonstruck' --
'snap out of it!' :)

p.s. i'm in the business, and completely get the whole branding thing.

Anonymous said...

the cabbie man, is actually a real cool guy, he is a high school teacher and has done well over 50 commercials. I dont have a problem with the dominos ad. Think it's great!

His name is Gregory k. and his commericials can be seen at youtube.