VERIZON DROID TV AD PROBLEM

VERIZON DROID TV ADVERTISEMENT

One of the frustrations experienced by a television or radio advertising expert is witnessing TV or radio advertising that is sabotaged by ill-conceived TV or radio commercial writing.

Take, for example, the  new TV commercial by Verizon for the Droid X “smart phone.” The advertisement has a split personality: It does some things really well…and messes up elsewhere.

The commercial begins strong, with the establishing shot of the office.

Then they make a strong claim: This “will change the way you do movies.” And they proceed to SHOW you what they mean. They show us how easily and quickly we can transitioning from “working” to “enjoying an exciting movie on demand.”

And doesn’t THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM look great on that little phone? Up until that point, the commercial work.

Of course, if you manage to read the fine print at the bottom of the screen you’ll see that the great-looking video is “simulated” and that the “sequences” have been “shortened” — apparently meaning that going from “phone on desk” to “movie playing on your phone” isn’t quite as fast & easy as the commercial makes it appear.

But almost no one will see that fine print, and the images are very effective.

Here is where the advertisement falls apart: when the announcer refers to the 4.3-inch screen as “so big.”

Consumers ARE willing to believe they can enjoy watching movies on such a small screen. But when you tell people the 4.3-inch screen as being “so big,” you create a state of cognitive dissonance for the consumer:

Is the screen 4.3 inches? Or is it “so big”?

It’s at that point that the commercial screeches to a halt, and then it resumes in a completely different direction. It implies that you’d need artificial eyes to be able to watch that film on that little telephone screen.

But the message should have been, “Movies look so good on the Droid screen that you’ll love watching them. Without being bionic. And without even having first to become an “an-droid”.