Ragu is a brand of tomato sauce which has chosen two famous siblings to endorce its product. I am sure most of us are familiar with the viral YouTube video "Charlie bit my finger". In the beginning, the Ragu advertisement features the two siblings who appeared in the YouTube video a few years ago, talking about how "Charlie bit my finger" was made. Then, the ad procedes to show the tomato sauce and the pasta that it is normally eaten with. The two parts of the advertisement are very disconnected, and the only attempt that advertisers have made to relate the sauce to the children is the final motto, "A long day of childhood calls for America's favorite pasta sauce". In my opinion, the advertisement above tries to follow advertising rules in a way that is very stiff and unsuccessful. Instead of flowing naturaly, the advertisement seems to be a simple disjointed collection of many established advertising tricks. The ad is clearly trying to grab consumers' attention by showing them the familiar faces of the two children, but it is not drawing attention to the product, because the children never interact with it. The actual images of the pasta and the sauce show nothing special or appetizing.The motto in the end is a poor attempt to evoke feelings of nostalgia to the consumers about their childhood. Compared to other contemporary ads it seems very deliberate and obvious, because it explicitly, rather than subliminaly, tells consumers they should associate the product with childhood.
Friday, November 23, 2012
"Charlie Bit My Finger" Used to Advertise Tomato Sauce
Ragu is a brand of tomato sauce which has chosen two famous siblings to endorce its product. I am sure most of us are familiar with the viral YouTube video "Charlie bit my finger". In the beginning, the Ragu advertisement features the two siblings who appeared in the YouTube video a few years ago, talking about how "Charlie bit my finger" was made. Then, the ad procedes to show the tomato sauce and the pasta that it is normally eaten with. The two parts of the advertisement are very disconnected, and the only attempt that advertisers have made to relate the sauce to the children is the final motto, "A long day of childhood calls for America's favorite pasta sauce". In my opinion, the advertisement above tries to follow advertising rules in a way that is very stiff and unsuccessful. Instead of flowing naturaly, the advertisement seems to be a simple disjointed collection of many established advertising tricks. The ad is clearly trying to grab consumers' attention by showing them the familiar faces of the two children, but it is not drawing attention to the product, because the children never interact with it. The actual images of the pasta and the sauce show nothing special or appetizing.The motto in the end is a poor attempt to evoke feelings of nostalgia to the consumers about their childhood. Compared to other contemporary ads it seems very deliberate and obvious, because it explicitly, rather than subliminaly, tells consumers they should associate the product with childhood.
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Completely unexpected.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that more and more ads use randomness to sell.
I wonder why and did this technique prove to be indeed working well?
I think some ad exec thought they should jump on the viral popularity of that video (which was everywhere, for about a month). But by the time they got through all the steps of creation and approval, the kids were 3 years older and no one remembered the video. But they crashed ahead anyway, and get this stupid feeling of old-school advertisement trying too hard to be hip.
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