The laziness of whimsical advertisements

These two TV spots came on the other night consecutively, both with fantastical imagery and vaguely folk-like music. The goal of such campaigns we suppose is to elucidate what the brand of the product is all about; how it should make the consumer of said product feel when they open themselves up to experiencing it. It’s seen most often for those products with intangible benefits or hard-to-discern advantages over their peers, like cars and mobile networks. A few years ago, and ad using this type of approach would have been distinctive; no longer. The problem now is that all these adverts with brands presented as ethereal experiences blend together as much of a muchness, a gloop of mediocre, wishy-washy intellectualism. It’s specifically the music, which many a creative (and Zeitgeist included) may be a fan of, but it occupies such a niche as to be repetitive and conversely reductive of a brand’s unique identity.

So let’s please curtail this ephemeral, intangible, whimsical attempt at an execution. Not because it never worked, but it’s been so overused now that it surely can’t be effective, because it is certainly no longer attractive.

Sigur Ros for one is glad that he’s inspiring people with his music, except when his music is being plagiarised.