Click for the :30 Tacoma #1 spot @1 MB, Quicktime

Ever notice how an advertising campaign will sometimes start with one really good commercial, and the rest seem like poor imitations of the first one or two? Yeah, I notice things too. We should hang out.

I have three spots from the same Toyota Tacoma campaign, in descending order of goodness. The first one is at the top because it has a moment in it that is actually funny, unlike the other spots. If you watch the video, it’s the part with the dog almost biting the guy in the head.

Otherwise it’s kind of bland. They are attempting to spoof a bad testimonial spot, but they don’t imitate any of the bad cinematography. Also the acting may be too good. Whatever the specific problems are, they didn’t do a good job imitating the bad production. They miss a big chance for something resembling humor in doing so.

This spot is ok, but with a lot of unrealized potential.

Click for the :30 Tacoma spot #2 @1 MB, Quicktime

This second spot gets the editing and shots a little more correct for the spoof, but they miss the punchy writing and delivery of the first spot.

I like the bad split screen, but I don’t think they go far enough with the camp. It seems like they were afraid to go too far into the realm of bad production, and they end up missing the mark. It’s not quite bad enough to be funny, so it remains just a little bad and not entertaining.

Inserting the narrator onscreen, and following through with the bad production (maybe using the seventh-and-a-half-floor industrial video from the movie Being John Malkovich as reference) would make this more effective.

Click for the :30 Tacoma #3 spot @1 MB, Quicktime

In this last spot..well, good enough. If I saw it on its own I’d probably think it was not good, but in comparison to the other two spots it’s a little more on the mark. It’s just bad enough to be somewhat entertaining, and they have some cornball acting that is appropriate for the spoof.

Still I don’t think it goes far enough to be perfect. It’s missing a lot of small details that would give it that official “bad production” feel. The camera work is a little too good, the acting is still a little too good, but it still works, though just barely.

If you’re going to make a commercial awful on purpose, make it really awful! Use older materials you know in your heart to be bad for reference. These seem like they spoofed the script from other bad spots, but used the best production available to them to produce their commercials. The production should be just as bad as the writing and premise.

Better luck next time!

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Salvador Dali’s lost experimental film

I like a lot of the Target ads currently out. A few of them are a little too weird. This is one of them.

Target did a great job repositioning themselves with their stylish, color-coordinated marketing campaign. It might have single-handedly saved them from the ninth ring of hell fate that befell Kmart. But this seems like campaign-fatigue, a sort of hideous distortion of the original vision that is so off base it scarcely resembles the original tone and style.

This spot, like a few others, drifts too far into the weird, or just too far into the color-coordination theme, and becomes a pile of monotonal, non-sequitur vomit.

The color scheme here makes me nauseous, and I have conferred with several completely real eye doctors who say it can cause blindness if watched more then 3 times in a row. The dancing costumes are the kind of retro advertising that was banished to hell for very specific reasons. Basically I submit to you that Target was messing with the forces of hell when they made this television spot.

Stop stalling, get in the blender

This spot strays too far from the chic of the more successful spots. It verges on the hipness levels of an Old Navy spot, which are exactly zero.

Some other Target spots are even weirder, making me wonder if they signed on David Lynch to help them out. He makes great film and TV, but his style might not be the most fit for a thirty second commercial..unless Target is trying to sell an alternate dream dimension where your mom is a midget biker and your dad is a protagonist who keeps changing appearance while he’s trying to chase you down to swap your feet with dogs’ heads.

This commercial looks like a GAP ad campaign ran out of gas on the train tracks and a Mexican variety show train carrying cars full of LSD smashed into the stranded vehicle. There were no survivors.

Once again I am out of filler run-on sentences. Watch the link and enjoy!

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Click for the :30 Sierra Mist spot @1 MB, Quicktime

I don’t know how the latest Sierra Mist commercials are so unfunny with so many good comedians in them. But they are.

I’m only showcasing one right now. In it two comedians square off in a deathmatch of rock-paper-scissors to see who gets the last refreshing Sierra Mist. And the tall dude (Jim Gaffigan) totally cheats.

This is actually the funnier of the commercials I’ve seen out in this campaign. But I kind of wished they had cut out Jim Gaffigan when he is trying to explain why he won. I think it would just be funnier if he took the Sierra Mist with no good explanation. Deep down I know he is a bully.

Click for the :30 Sierra Mist re-edited spot @1 MB, Quicktime

I’ve done a quick reedit for how I’d like to see the commercial. I think this is a lot funnier. The original isn’t all that horrible, but it seems way below par. There’s something about a joke not being funny when it is completely set up to be a joke. And this has that something. (I should get the Pulitzer for those last two sentences). What I mean is that there is too much anticipation about the words about to come out of Jim’s mouth to be funny that almost anything he says will be disappointing. I wish he would just push Michael out of the way and abscond with the delicious refreshing Sierra Mist then try to joke his way out of it.

The only other spot I’ve seen has Debra Wilson and Michael Ian Black trying to steal back a liter of Sierra Mist they brought to a party. It’s kind of tedious and boring. They argue about re-gifting and un-gifting and it feels like a channeling of Jerry and Elaine from beyond the Seinfeld TV series’ grave instead of the humor of the living.

Having practiced comedians in the spots is a good idea, but I think they need to beef up the writing and timing to make the campaign a little less forgettable. And now to refresh myself with a little Sierra Whiskey.

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Click for the :30 Hallmark spot @1 MB, Quicktime

This is a video addition to the “Oh Boy Let’s Imagine Things!” entry.

Go back and read the addition or just watch it here. It’s part of the showcase of commercials abusing the powers of…IMAGINATION!

In this spot we see a product entertaining a woman’s family and friends. But where could the woman have gotten the idea to buy this product? Why, in the Hallmark store, a place full of Hallmark products!

Why does the woman even need to imagine this? Why can’t she bring the piece of crap snowman home and let us watch everything in sequence? Why do you keep screwing with the audience WHY??

Sorry, I need to lie down a spell. (I imagine lying down a spell and you see it) Yep, gonna go lie me down rightly.

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Click for the :30 Alabama spot #1 @1 MB, Quicktime

Howdy ya’ll! We’re fixin’ to correct many of the mees-con-cep-shuns ya’ll must got’s in yer brains ’bout ALABAMMY!

(Shooting guns in the air whilst dancing with my sister)

(Fiddlin’ a spell)

I’ve got two spots by the Alabama Supreme Tourism Authority for ya’ll to take a gander at. In this first one (the link is below the still image of the “laptop”, a.k.a. “horseless computer”) we discover there’s more to Alabama than incompetent gas station owners.

A man pulls in to get directions (after all..it’s his turn!) and he is shocked -SHOCKED- that the man has a PowerBook and a nice 21 inch flat screen monitor.

Check out this motherfucka!

Man, I wish I had a PowerBook. The acting in this spot is a little questionable, but what stands out more is the ham-fisted attempt to make Alabama seem modern. I might be surprised to find a run down gas station had such expensive computer equipment, but it wouldn’t change my perception about Alabama, just my perception of the income level of gas station owners. Actually I hear they make a lot of money. That’s it, I quit this job.

And did the old man name his dog “Browser”? Is his first name “Internet”? Let’s move on before I start writing a letter.

Click for the :30 Alabama spot #2 @1 MB, Quicktime

In this second spot (the link is below the picture) we see some beautiful photography of an Alabama golf course. Hey, it looks pretty dang beautiful. Good job guys. You didn’t screw this one up. I had you all figured wrong.

In all honesty, after that last commercial, I was about to fire you. All of you. But now, I see that..wait a minute..

Just when things look like they are going well, we see some really poorly timed acting. “That’ll be forty of them Union dollars you gots mister!” the woman says to the golfer. “….PER HOLE?” he asks.

I don’t really want to blame the actor for this, I think they just left in a little bit too much of his initial “shocked” reaction before he speaks. But the result is so bad it’s burned a place in my brain forever.

Click for re-edited Alabama #2 spot under 1 MB, Quicktime

I’ve isolated the few seconds of trouble video in this third video link to help illustrate my point. Remember, it’s for illustration only. I’m serious.

The picture of the dog has nothing to do with the video link. Seriously, he doesn’t. There are no dogs in this video. Nope. Not a one.

That’s all fer today ya’ll! Now get off my prop-er-tee af’fore I dance with yer mommas! YEE HAW! (Dancing in a river while gold prospecting)

(Whittlin’ up a proper pokin’ stick)

(Votin’ ag’in yer candidates)

(Jugglin’)

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