Wash Your Balls!! Axe commercial

I saw a short version of this commercial on television a couple of weeks ago and then I never saw it again.  I'm pretty sure it was banned for obvious reasons.  I remember being surprised it was aired in the first place.  While I think it's absolutely hilarious, it probably does push the boundaries a little too far for general audience viewing.  Axe has the right idea though.  This commercial appeals to a generation that is unabashed by sexual innuendo.  We are the "that's what she said" generation, after all.  No one wants to see a boring commercial.  We love controversy, and even if you were offended by this commercial, you would probably still rather watch it than a Bob Rohrman commercial.  I know I would.  Advertising is all about getting the attention of viewers, readers, etc., and this commercial does just that.  Shock value is just one method of attention-grabbing and when done well it can be advertising gold.  This commercial though, as I said, probably went a little too far with the shock value and crossed the line into a bit vulgar.  Vulgarity has its place in our culture and it's in TV and movies intended for mature audiences only.  Having a commercial that flirts with that line between edgy and vulgar on the air where anyone can see it is probably not a good idea.

I love it when ads use a negative situation to advertise their product.  It's such a backwards way of promoting something.  Directly this ad is saying, use our headphones and you'll die because you won't hear the waterfall you're about fly off of.  Obviously Bose doesn't literally want people to die becasue they won't hear something dangerous coming.  However, the point of the ad is to demonstrate in an unexpected way that these are great noise-cancelling headphones.  It would be obvious, boring and expected to show someone wearing the headphones and smiling serenely while an obnoxious person is trying to talk to them, or if they were in a crowded, noisy waiting room.  Bose is giving the audience a break from the expected, and letting them enjoy the ad rather than just seeing it.  As I said, I just really enjoy ads when they come up with an outside-of-the-box way to demonstrate the benefits of a product.  This ad is actually showcasing the main benefit of the product as a bad thing--a dangerous thing even.  It's a more intelligent way to approach showcasing a benefit and I appreciate it because most ads are not so considerate to the bored audience that is the American consumer.

Artengo Tennis Shoes

This ad reminds me of a reading we did in class about coming up with clever concepts for ads.  The example was Kentucky Bourbon.  They decided the main selling point would be that aged whiskey is the best, and this particular brand is very very aged or slow.  So rather than just saying, this bourbon is slow, the author tried to think of other things that are slow and turn the concept into something clever and interesting.  The same sort of thing is going on in this ad.  The main selling point of the shoe is its shock absorbency.  So the author probably thought, "okay, when is it important to have shock absorbency...what else is shock absorbent?"  Packaging for expensive, fragile things has to absorb all kinds of shock in order to protect its contents.  So the advertiser cleverly placed the shoes around the Ming vase in place of traditional packaging to send a message to the consumer that these shoes will protect your joints the way packaging protects expensive vases.  I like this ad because I like when ads are sort of unexpected and put objects together that seem very strange and contradictory and make them make sense.