Confession number one is that last night was the first time that I had ever bothered to watch an Oscars ceremony, and I rather enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the couture commentary from my fashion maven wife. Confession number two is that we have not owned a television for more than a decade, so I found myself riveted to the advertisements as well as the show.

It is a little early to comment on effectiveness of the TV spots, which must await a few months, at least, of consumer impact and business results. Clearly, even with typical media buy costs being slashed, several companies felt the buy not to be a good return on investment or an appropriate media placement. However, in this post I can offer up just a few subjective thoughts on the day after.

I really enjoyed the TrueNorth TV spot stories, especially the one about The Inspiration Café serving food, support and advice to Chicago’s homeless. Unfortunately, I found the transition from those amazing stories to an image of snack food to be disconcerting. I assume the intention was to create some indelible connection between those illustrations of charitable community selflessness and the brand for a bag of nuts. However, the message as presented seemed discordant to me rather than harmonious.

I had a similar problem with the Coca-Cola’s ads that suggested they were at the forefront of both recycling around the world and the Coca-Cola ads touting their heart health campaign for women. I couldn’t help but feel that the message in these ads was at odds with corporate reality. When Heidi Klum sashays out to a group of attractive women in lovely red cocktail dresses while sporting her diet-Coke, that just takes me to social conversations about “diet” and perceptions of attractiveness for women, not the sincerity of their brand’s devotion to healthcare issues. It felt like the advertising shell-game equivalent of Philip Petit’s magic coin sleight of hand trick during the ceremony.

The Hyundai ads, however, were super. They continued communicating their Hyundai Assurance program, which directly addresses the current economic issues (and for Oscar relevance, uses Jeff Bridges as the narrator), while also asserting that they are a high-quality vehicle, through association with the Oscars and by promoting their North American Car of the Year award for the Genesis model. “The medium is part of the message,” Chris Perry, director of advertising for Hyundai Motor America is quoted as saying in the LA Times. This Genesis model ad was powerfully expressive of this upscale message.

It seemed apparent to me that the tone of the ads shifted around the time that Jerry Lewis accepted his award, as immediately afterward a pharmaceutical spot ran. While I can’t even remember the drug advertised, I do remember that the TV spot was not compelling, and jumped cheaply on the Obama bandwagon by finishing with the now ubiquitous “Oh, yes I can!” affirmation.

Finally, I have to say that I enjoyed our local ads for the Children’s Hospital. That’s a nice new brand and, even though working with kids should enable easy production of engaging media, the TV spots are heart-warming without cliché and carry the brand message exceptionally well.

Let me know your opinion of best or worse TV spot and any other Oscar observations you may have.

Tags: Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Oscars, TrueNorth

Written by Stuart
David Day | Associates
About the Author: Stuart is constantly curious and believes conversation matters, for business, people and community. Feel free to join in...

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.