Help. Beyonce is Upgrading my Headache … to a Migraine.
By Dan Dooley on Friday, December 7th, 2007Look, I’m as big a fan of the head fake shimmy to scallywag, foot shuffle back to head fake shimmy as the next guy, and love ironic jewelry that says something even more ironically specific when the jewelry is eaten, but I will not be upgrading to Direct TV’s HD offering - thank you very much, Beyonce.
In one of the most preposterous TV commercials of all time (I originally thought it was a parody of some kind), our luminary is starring in a music video that is going swimmingly, just beautifully, until she’s reminded that she’s actually hawking Direct TV, and desperately needs to upgrade me to a $29.99 HD package. But she doesn’t stop the video part, just injects the commercial part, or is it the other way around. I’m so confused.
But, then the mouthful of her gold “upgrade” medallion cleared it all up for me. However, the thing is, I’d much rather have the “upgrade” necklace than the Direct TV upgrade. All I can find, though, is a necklace with Beyonce herself on it, not the actual “Upgrade” necklace that would match my “With a 2-yr service agreement” bracelet, and “After mail-in rebate” anklet.
All kidding aside, this piece of advertising, and the hideously frequent volume of its showing, is really why the average consumer gets turned off by our trade, and why smart strategy is increasingly moving toward actual and resonant consumer insights driving brand gains. What could possibly be the core insight here? That Beyonce is an expert on High Definition television? Or that she really believes that $29.99 is the optimum price point for 75 of the hottest HD channels…
No, what we have here is the classic “music to sell stuff to” theorem, wherein a marketing exec, typically on the client side (but not always), heard the song or saw Beyonce’s video, and said, “You know, it has the word ‘upgrade’ in it, and people know who Beyonce is, and we can cover the cost of her talent fee by simply cutting up the music video with some VO about the offer…, as long as we run 1,200 GRPs a week during the holidays, man this stuff is going to sell itself”.
So in honor of one of the most ungainly, clumsy and annoying commercials ever to air under the “music to sell stuff to” theory, what other gems have gone untapped? Please submit your idea for a song that ‘totally’ needs to be paired with a product; example:
+
=
profits …
“Hippy Hippy Shakes” with Immodium:
“Oh I can’t sit still
With the hippy hippy shakes…”
Lays Potato Chips and Britney Spear’s Gimme More.
Meanwhile, this is actually one of many DirectTV commercials with this premise airing over the last year and a half… but it just happens to be the first done with a music video.
You may remember DirectTV has cut into many movies to jam some advertising into it, including Alien, Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Twister, Austin Powers, and Dukes of Hazard. They’ve also done two with a sports premise, where in one Peyton Manning starts a pitch for the “NFL Sunday Ticket” package mid-play.
I have heard many complain about these commercials, but then again I guess there is something to be said that people are talking about them. Hundreds of millions of dollars to good use? Unfortunately so.
Sad to say, but I found your necklace… a low $399.99.
Meanwhile, fashion sites have reported that Beyonce is wearing her “Bubble Gum Machine Necklace” in public. http://popsugar.com/156615