Ivan Pavlov won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his experiments with his dogs. He rang a bell, fed them meat paste day after day. Eventually when Ivan rang the bell the dogs started salivating because they associated the sound of the bell (ding ding) with the taste of the meat (yum yum). If the dogs did not like the taste of meat the constant ringing of the bell would have only irritated the dogs.
In 2005 Time Warner Cable in Southeast Wisconsin launched a promotional campaign for their automotive search engine Beep Beep dot com. For those of you not served by Time Warner Cable, consider yourselves lucky. In 1959, the Playmates released a song called “Beep Beep.” Time Warner borrowed the melody, changed the lyrics added the Roadrunner, put the campaign on the air (beep beep) every day (beep beep) on nearly every channel (beep beep) available (beep beep).
It was cute for the first 75 times (beep beep) I saw the promo (beep beep). But within a month or so (beep beep) I grabbed the remote and hit the mute button as soon as (beep beep) the promo began. Day after beeping day the barrage continued. Soon the mute button on the remote (beep beep) wore off and I was forced to change the channel usually to find another (beep beep) promo.
Then yesterday it hit me. “I can order one of them satellite thingies and be free of the Roadrunner, the Playmates and Beep Beep Dot Com forever.” Still the promo had a profound impact on me. I’m pretty sure when it's time for a new vehicle, I won’t be visiting (beep beep) Beep Beep dot Com.
Are the repetitive elements of your ads (slogans, positioning statements, etc.) tied to something the viewer or listener finds yummy? Or are you just irritating the dog?
I hate that stupid commercial. I hate how they change the keys on the keyboard to spell it out. I hate how they took one of my favorite cartoons and associate it to this garbage. I am blown away by the lack of creativity. This ranks right below the "HEAD ON" commercial.
Posted by: Rob | February 18, 2009 at 05:07 PM