Why do agencies think they can put the same actor in television campaigns for different brands?

You’d think after hiring out a studio, building a set and having entire prop, wardrobe and design departments create an environment that extends the brand’s message – agency creatives wouldn’t fuck the whole thing up by hiring the same talent that’s pitching for someone else. Especially one that’s on-air at the exact same time, competing for attention…

One time, on a commercial shoot involving the Hamburger Helper glove puppet, it got delivered to set in an ARMORED CAR. The explanation from the agency was – this is “The Face” of the brand and it needs to be protected. Which seems a novel concept today, when the following girl has been in at least six commercials and I can’t keep track of which is pitching what.

To the left  is LA scenester Alexi Wasser and from a quick Google it looks like she fits the party photo role right out of central casting – being an occasional DJ, sometimes groupie and “actor” in powerful roles with complex plotlines such as “girl hangs out in bubble bath and puts on a see-through white shirt” (link). When watching the Bing! commercial she’s in, I keep getting this unsettling feeling that she is also selling us yogurt designed to fight diarrhea and / or constipation. However, I could only find these googly-eyed bangs in TV spots for Dentyne, Ask.com, Kohl’s, Quiznos, Boost Mobile and one of those Ashton Kutcher Nikon digital camera ones. If anyone can confirm her involvement with yogurt, please post the link below. Of course we can’t recall what brand it is, as they all sort of mash together.

In terms of being “The Face” of an ad campaign and taking that exact same persona to another television commercial – the biggest citation goes out to Deutsch/LA for poaching the Geico “Robot” character. In the Geico spots, done by The Martin Agency, Jerry Lambert plays a dull, corporate type who pitches to the camera from his office setting. Which looks pretty similar to the new Playstation 3 “Does Everything” campaign. In those television spots done by Deutsch/LA, Jerry Lambert plays a dull, corporate type who pitches to the camera from his office setting.

You know what’d be a hit? If the Mac and PC guy had an ad campaign, where they stand against a white backdrop and Mac tells you all about this new yogurt on the market, while PC disagrees with him and then shits himself. Maybe if Justin Long and John Hodgman are available, then Deutsch/LA could put together a spec for Activia.

But, you know what we’re on about here… There is no actor shortage, last we checked in Hollywood. And it’s not clients being unwilling to throw tons of money around to differentiate themselves from the competition on TV. Nope. The reason it takes :15 seconds of a :30 second spot to realize that you’re not watching a Geico ad, is because advertising creatives have fucked up. Maybe they’re literally in bed with casting, or more likely it’s their ‘boomer “marketing robot” approach to just  copy n’ paste what’s successful elsewhere. Like when ad-man Tarsem came out with his “visionary” feature film debut and was subsequently sued by Damien Hirst and a whole host of visual artists for appropriating their imagery. Or in the case of this Playstation ad, saying “Who can we cast to be our corporate pitch man character? How about the guy that’s doing it in the other TV ads?”

We’re going to file this under “agency creatives that are completely fucking clueless.”

Tags: Brands, Campaign, Deutsch/LA, Postboomer, The Martin Agency
Posted in: File Under: Clueless, General