Soooooo…though promised in early July, the next installment in the Sony Bravia ad campaign was finally released. See previous posting on the subject here.
Beginning with their now infamous colorful bouncing superball film, Sony’s been plugging their Bravia LCD televisions with a series of ever-more elaborate concept films. The latest version, filmed in Glasgow, took a crew of 250 people more than two weeks to film. Cleanup alone took 5 days and 60 people!
Given the wacky spelling of the word color in the tag line (Colour like no other), don’t expect to see the ad on US television…which is quite a shame as these ads are far better than what passes for prime time television these days.
As advertisers and marketers struggle to maintain relevancy in the world of television advertising, many frequently veer in the direction of entertainment. If the consumer is increasingly uninterested in traditional advertising, the logic goes, at least tie your product or service to something worth watching.
And while many, ourselves included, have been critical of early efforts based on such novel concepts as “how to cook a pizza” or “explore beautiful Milwaukee,” the folks at Meow Mix have a better knack for what might work in this evolving area of “advertainment.”
Dubbed “Meow Mix House,” the ten mini-episode series follows the lives of ten cats picked to live in a house and compete for a position in the Meow Mix Corporation as vice president of R&D for feline affairs. Think of this as “Real World” meets “The Apprentice.”
The show features the cats playing with each other, frolicking and otherwise displaying their unique personalities in each of ten, three minute “mini” episodes to be aired on cable television.
The goal, of course, is to actually entertain the consumer rather than talk at them or to them. As Carrie Parks, account director for MMB notes:
“We hope that consumers will look at this as something more than advertising…they’ll look at it and think of it as entertainment venue.”
What a great idea. Something that sounds truly entertaining and suggests that most of us would rather watch an imaginary series about cats than the stuff traditional advertisers have been barraging us with for 40-odd years.
(via Boston Herald)
