If I ruled the world…I would remove the latest series of Vodafone adverts in an instant. The message of the advert does not come across clearly and is further lost by the infuriating chap who sings the non-catchy song. For an advert to be so heavily song based it needs to be catchy. Think 118 247 – the Yellow Pages advert featuring the Weebls style cartoon animation, paired with the acceptably infuriatingly catchy song which conveys the message of what the service provides and fits in an extensive range of services available in rhyming couplets and imaginative word pairings such as “pizza or pension.” Yell Group’s media department report on their advert:
Call volumes at its UK based call centres have risen by more than 70 per cent so far since the ‘Directory Heaven’ ad first appeared on TV, radio and online three weeks ago. The ad, based on the cult internet cartoon character ‘Magical Trevor’, has been getting a growing online following of its own. It has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times on YouTube and internet forums have been buzzing with positive comments.
The Vodafone advert has this week become twice as infuriating in that it appears that it is indeed a series of adverts…how many more to come?!
Once again we have a young man taking a time out to sing a song before having the epiphany that ‘Yes, I REALLY can make that important phonecall now-its not a money issue anymore thanks to my Vodafone Freedom package and a little reflective sing song.”
Once again we have the same use of ‘If I Ruled the World,’ although this time it appears to be the Neil Diamond cover version and once again we reach for the remote to get it off before the lead opens his mouth. If you are really unfortunate, you will get both of the adverts in the same ad break.
I feel fully vindicated in switching my contract to O2 recently and secondary comfort comes from the fact that the Vodafone advert, as yet, does not have Duffy wailing in apparant Welsh valley agony on a bike along the frozen veg aisle. Given that ‘Vodafone cut ad spend by nearly 18 percent to GBP 54 million in 2008,’ (Telecompaper) surely this advert is doing far more damage than good for the reduced advertising spending power the company has at its disposal.
[...] As the Marketing Journal Blog says: ‘Launching a blog and waiting for people to arrive is not as easy as it might seem. You could find yourself writing for months and even years without mass amounts of traffic.’ As the title of this post shows, simply name dropping some big search engine performers is not going to cut it, although I have found in my short time of blogging with a purpose, that the most traffic my site has received has been associated with having the word ‘Vodafone,’ as part of this post. [...]
That first advert is quite catchy and for some reason reminds me of Flight of the Conchords.
That second advert is ghastly…however, the fact people are talking about it means it is doing its job. Even terrible ads raise awareness – lots hope it is a short run campaign!
Bloody awful campaign.
Seems that all the people in the ads just want to go to the beach if they ruled the world.
Presidency of the Planet carries far greater respnsibilities than lying on a sunlounger.
What about the global economy? Hunger? Famine? AIDS? Inter-racial conflict?
It just doesn’t work!