Some years ago I decided to analyze 50 random TV car commercials. First, I reviewed them and then cut each scene just at the point where the car shows how brilliantly it handles at fast speeds. I'm sure you know just what I'm talking about--the wide-open road in a glamorous location. Out of the 50 commercials I looked at, 48 contained a slight variation of just that scene. I then joined the cut moments together into one mega 90-second commercial. I kid you not: it looked as if it were a single commercial made by a single director using the same cameraman. At the end of the exercise, I looked to see which vehicle stood out amongst them. Sadly, there was not a single one.
Similarly, whenever I watch commercials on the international edition of CNN, I play a game with myself. I call it: "What Country Are They Promoting Now?" I try to guess which nation is being promoted before the answer's revealed at the end of the ad. Now, I've been watching these ads for years and yet, no matter how many times I've been exposed to the genre, I still manage to get a good half of them wrong. Yet, now and then, in our world of sameness, a person manages to get an idea for a promotion that stands out enough to spark conversations.
