remake, remodel.
February 8th, 2010 // 1:21 pm @ andy // No Comments yet
Hello there you. First of all let me apologise for the absence of “thatandywhiteblog” for the last couple of days. What? You hadn’t noticed? Oh. Fair enough. Ok then, I’ll just get on with it shall I?
Today I’m being a bit confused again. This time it’s about the latest Barclaycard ad, you know the one, the big mad rollercoaster through the city on the way to work thing.
It looks fantastic doesn’t it? It was filmed in New York and Hollywood and, according to Barclay’s media department it’s “the most technical and complicated ( advert ) yet in Barclaycard’s celebrated history of advertising”. ( Not sure who’s celebrating or where but I wasn’t invited. )
But here’s the thing. Is it just me, ( by the way, am I using that phrase too much or is it just me? ), or isn’t it exactly the same ad as the previous “Waterslide”
spot but with a fancier frock on? Ok, there is one major departure as the bloke on the rollercoaster is on his way TO work and the waterslide man was on his way FROM work. Oh, and rollercoaster man buys a coffee with a carefree and contactless flourish while waterslide bloke plumps for a banana. But, inherently it’s just the same ad isn’t it? I’m all for reinforcing the message and all that stuff but surely before spending what must have been a colossal amount of money on that thing, ( they used the “spidercam” for the first time outside of movies you know. It’s called “spidercam” beacause they used it on the “Spiderman” films. Who comes up with this stuff? Crazy town, crazy people ), didn’t they have a moment where they said, “Anyone got an idea?”, before making a bigger, fancier version of the idea that went before? Maybe Barclaycard bloke could’ve been riding a horse through the city, waving his contactless card at colourful street vendors who cheerily throw their wares at him as he gallops by. Or something. I’m sure loads of people will tell me exactly why I’m completely wrong on this point and I’ll be happy to hear all the reasons.
Call me an old fashioned Manchester copywriter, I just like to see a new idea in an ad now and again.
Mind you, at least he wasn’t fannying about on a stupid pair of customised crutches for no good reason whilst buying a stupid hat.
Category : Uncategorized
