Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Ad spots: How low can you go?

I gotta stop drinking Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Light (not that I drink a lot of soft drinks, but still) - there's no way I can sink money into a company that green-lights the kind of commercials and ad spots you see for Coca-Cola Zero (targeted towards a male demographic) and Light (targeted towards a female demographic). Especially the Zero commercials are the worst cases of lowest common denominator, insulting to both genders, crap commercials I've ever seen on network television in Norway. It might even be pushing the infernal "Axe" ad spots down from the top position.

In case you haven't seen it, it deals with a "morning after a one-night stand" scenario at the girl's place, where the parents come knockin' on the door right after the girl hits the shower. The situation appears dire for the boy, but then he takes a sip of a Coca-Cola Zero he finds in the fridge, and immediately, a SWAT-team breaks in through the window and airlifts the "hero" out with a helicopter. Just before the boy lifts off from the window sill, the girl emerges from the shower, and as he gestures that he'll call her, she enthusiastically approves. As the boy is lifted away from the window, the apartment blows up from an explosion.

Way to deal with a grown-up situation. On a side note, it's somewhat odd that the girl has a Zero in her fridge, seeing as how the entire premise is based on Zero being a boys-only soft drink. Why would she have it in her fridge? There are three scenarios which resonate with the overall premise: 1) the girl is cheating on her boyfriend (as was suggested by my wife), 2) there was an exchange of money for services provided, or 3) that this describes something right out of Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and thus more "bromantic" than the commercial lets on at first.

Coca-Cola Light is for girls and Coca-Cola Zero is for boys......when was it decided that the consumers were so lazy-ass, howl-at-the-moon stupid that this was a reasonable market segmentation? Especially considering that the hook in the Zero commercials entail adult situations and thus targets demographics above the age of consent?


...and speaking of dumb-ass ads; in Dagbladet's "Magasinet" on Saturday, the inside cover featured a two-page ad from Norsk Sykepleierforbund (The Norwegian Nurses Organization), where they point to the unfortunate fact that women make 85 cent on the dollar compared to men. The punchline in the ad: "Eller må vi bli menn for å få rettferdig lønn" (Or do we have to become men in order to earn the wages we derserve?") You can see the ad and read more about it here. So on one hand the nurses point to the bogus fact that professions traditionally held by women are not as well paid as men with a comparable education (in years), but on the other hand they more than suggest that if they switched genders yet remained within the same profession, they'd make more. Congratulations on confusing the issues and looking downright moronic when there are legitimate grievances which should be resolved.

6 comments:

Anders said...

1) the girl is cheating on her boyfriend (as was suggested by my wife), 2) there was an exchange of money for services provided, or 3) that this describes something right out of Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and thus more "bromantic" than the commercial lets on at first.

...or 4) It's been left there by the girls dad, whom is quite the playa'...

...ad from Norsk Sykepleierforbund (The Norwegian Nurses Organization), where they point to the unfortunate fact that women make 85 cent on the dollar compared to men.

Hate the commercial, and I totally agree with you. And they always focuses on the nurses, while there are way many other groups working in hospitals with a three years university hospital degree that earns just as little. In fact, they all have pretty much the same basic pay, but the nurses got a slighty better settlement on extras. And the fact remains that all those groups have gotten a pretty decent increase in pay the last few years.

Wilhelm said...

...or 4) It's been left there by the girls dad, whom is quite the playa'...

...ahh.. the Fritzl-version

Anders said...

Hey, I just saw that Cola Zero commercial five minutes ago. For the first time. Just as lame as the previous ones...

On a side note: This commercial use sex in the sales pitch and is stereo-typing, but still, I can't help liking it... :-D

Wilhelm said...

...you always were a sucker for prison bromance, weren't you?

Wilhelm said...

Hey, I just saw that Cola Zero commercial five minutes ago. For the first time. Just as lame as the previous ones...

Ya think?

Anders said...

Ya think?

No sh*t... Talk about creativity.

Could somebody explain me this: Why is Zero targeted for men and Light for women? I can't really see anything apart from the commercials (been a while since I saw a Coca-Cola Light commercial, though) that indicates a masculinity with Zero. The bottle design is the classic Coca-Cola, the label design isn't particulary gender spesific and no extra flavour is added (it's the same super-sweet syrup as all Coca-Colas). Even the name isn't very masculin (Zero? From Hero to Zero...). Axe at least have a manly name, I'll give'em that...