As I watched a rare commercial break this morning – I record just about everything I watch and fast-forward through the commercials – I was truly impressed with some photographic magic. A fresh-faced, well-scrubbed young teen-age boy came on the screen to tell me about the problems drugs can cause a guy. As he explained what they do to the brain, his face morphed seamlessly into a scraggly bearded, unkempt, troubled youth. As I said, it was seamless. And, the video trick did not distract from the message; it enhanced it.
This type of video art made me reflect on how advertisers could cut way down on people fast-forwarding through commercials by doing more of it. In other words, give the viewer something artistic and/or entertaining to watch. Some do.
The very effective Aflac duck commercial is a prime example. That one is quite expensive to make so not every advertiser can afford something like it. However, much lower-budgeted commercials can also be artistic and entertaining. Some of you may remember from many years ago the two local seniors advertising Southern Maid No-burn Bacon. At the end of their verbal sparring, one would always end with, “He’ll never learn.” A lot of folks laughed at those commercials and bought that bacon.
Tags: Aflac, Aflac duck, commercials, TV, TV commercials
December 4, 2018 at 1:52 pm |
Those two “local seniors” were actually the President (the tall gentleman) and Chairman of the Board (the shorter heavier gentleman) of the company that produced Southern Maid Bacon and they came up I undersyand with most of those classic commercials themselves. When I was in the 4th grade a clasmate and I did their commercial (as part of a class program) where the Roman soldier reports to Nero (played by me) about Rome burning. Nero is undisturbed though because, as always, “the Southern Maid Bacon won’t burn”. When the Southern Maid salesman came by my familys grocery store the next week, my Grandmother told him about my friend and I putting on their commercial for our elementary school. He went back and told his bosses about it and soon thereafter I received a very high quality baseball glove compliments of Southern Maids President and Chairman of the Board thanking me for helping to promote their product(s). I still have that glove. It’s the only glove I’ve ever needed and still works great! I wish I had kept the letter that came with it, but as a kid I was only interested in the glove back then. I did call (with my Grandmother’s help) and thank the gentlemen for their generous gift. That’s how I found out just who the two “actors” in their commercials were.