It’s 3 AM. . .

Last week, Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a television ad that basically says, “It’s 3 AM. When something happens in the world, who do you want to be in the White House to answer the call?” (See above.) There are so many things wrong with this ad. Firstly, Hillary is cultivating fear in the hearts of Americans–something for which she has repeatedly criticized President Bush. Also, the little girl in the ad is actually all grown up now (way to use stock footage, people. I mean, I know money is tight, but . . ), and she’s this huge Obama supporter! The girl, Casey Knowles, says that she doesn’t like the ad because of its “fear mongering.” Ahh the sweet smell of irony. Also–and this is just me–the thought of Hillary answering the White House phone is very effective in instilling a paralyzing fear in my heart. Of course, this ad has been fodder for many a spoof. See below for a couple of my favorite examples.

Also, here’s Obama’s response to Clinton’s ad:

The dynamics of advertising change online

Rarely will you see a commercial on one network advertising for a show on another, but online the rules shatter conventional marketing boundaries. MSN.com is linking their brand image to Reuters – marketing to the 20-something crowd.

Optimum Online cements in your mind

Sing it with me, because I know if you saw the commercial even once you remember the lyrics, “Mi gente, Optimum Triple Play is in the house! Hi ho! Digital cable!” The song lasts a full minute, but sticks to the inside of the average brain for several days.

You may find the Boriqua mermaids, banana float, pirate attire on the beach or singing sea monster a bit tacky, or even racist, but people remember the commercial (and it continues to play). On the Racialicious blog Carmen Van Kerckhove posted a critique of the commercial‘s attempt to appeal to a broader market, which sparked a lengthy debate. One such poster, Sunny, encapsulated the appeal of this commercial, “OMG, this commercial is so friggin annoying!!!! I was just watching the TODAY show on NBC and the commercial came on and I wanted to find out what other people were saying and ended up finding this message board. Can you believe that 5 minutes later the commercial came on again on the same channel. It’s driving me insane. I hate it so much!! What is even more irritating though is that it’s a catchy tune and that it’s like watching a train wreck. It’s so annoying, steretypical and cheesy that part of me can’t turn away when I watch it.”

Some people really can’t turn away. Check them out below.

HeadOn turns me off

Maybe it’s the loud, repetitive chanting of “HeadOn – apply directly to the forehead” or the yellow arrow pointing to the forehead (the area, in case you weren’t listening, on which should apply HeadOn), but nothing makes me change the channel faster than this commercial. I remember HeadOn though – which is where this company’s primitive marketing tactic prevails.

Slate’s Seth Stevenson gave the commercial an A+ in the magazine’s “Ad Report Card” series. He said the company’s use of blunt force advertising succeeds in its use of repetition, kitsch, mystery and ubiquity. Besides the line, “HeadOn – apply directly to the forehead” the commercial’s entire script consists of nine more words, spoken quickly at the end, “HeadOn is available without a prescription at retailers nationwide.”

The advertisement, which debuted in June 2006, courts its critics, but serves as a muse for video parodies as well. Even Lil Jon got in on the action.

“We did not intend to make a joke out of this or a parody,” Dan Charron, vice president of sales and marketing for HeadOn’s maker, Plantation, Fla.-based Miralus health care, told USA Today’s Theresa Howard. “All we are trying to do is create brand awareness.”

That they did. USA Today reported at the end of July 2007 sales were up 50 percent for HeadOn since that April. Retail Wire said sales for the over the counter headache remedy rose 234 percent from 2005 to 2006 and rose again two-fold in 2007.

Fox’s Gold Mine

So no matter how you feel about reality television, we all know that American Idol is one of the most–if not the most–successful shows of all time. Advertisers know this as well–Idol has the highest ad prices on television right now. This season, Idol serves as an added bonus for Fox in that it came a few weeks before the end of the writers’ strike, carrying Fox through the strike pretty comfortably. I thought it would be interesting to see how many ads they crammed into tonight’s hour-long show, in which the judges picked the top 24 singers to continue in the competition. In 60 minutes, Fox showed 41 commercials, which took up about 20 minutes of airtime over the course of the hour. At $900,000 for a 30-second spot, up 50 percent from last year, Fox and News Corp execs are surely seeing the world through dollar-sign-shaped pupils.