Comment by Michael B. Moore on January 6, 2012 at 2:44pm

This spot is a perfect example of both ad agency creatives run amok and negligent brand management.  Far too many people think that advertising can be as simple as creating an entertaining, funny, beautiful, wacky  (you pick the adjective)  28 or 58 seconds worth of content and then plastering a logo at the end.  It's not.  Frankly, in many instances it can be a waste of money and energy.  It may feed into the ad agency quest for creative awards, but not sell a unit.

This spot is yet another example of really great video - beautifully shot, mouthwatering visuals - the whole nine.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't have much to do with the brand.  Now, I can just hear the creatives saying that all they have to do is somehow integrate Ray Ban into an aspirational setting with an attractive person etc., etc., etc.  At the end of the day, though, marketers have to ask themselves if they're happy, essentially,  having their advertising be in the mode of : "this aspirational moment brought to you by XYZ".  

No, that's NOT enough!  Why relegate your presence - in your own ad - to that of a mere product placement?  Sure, product placements can be great ways to confer credibility and awareness about your brand - but advertising must deliver more than that.

Now, of course, many argue that you can't hit consumers over the head these days; that they are sophisticated and must be marketed to accordingly.  I actually could not agree more.  At the same time, it is an advertiser's responsibility to present their brand in a way that cuts through the 20,000 or so commercial messages that consumers see every day - that speaks as directly to consumers as possible - that leverages their emotional and physical needs in a way that allows them to connect more powerfully with your brand, and, at the end of the day - actually go out and buy your product.

Part of the challenge, I speculate, is that I would bet that not too many advertising people grow up dreaming about working for an advertising agency creating strategic pieces of brand building advertising content.  To the contrary, I would bet the vast majority of creatives grow up dreaming of being artists - which I'm guessing entails somewhat romantic notions of organically deriving artistic and creative inspiration and then - as their heart moves them - creating.  As we all know, the reality of 21st century advertising is a far stretch from that.  Sure, it uses all of the skills and techniques that they learned in art school, but it re-routes them through a decidedly strategic and business process - which can, in fact, be unfriendly (or foreign) to a purely creative process.  Developing good advertising is more than creating entertaining video.  It's about infusing consumer data around both physical and emotional benefits to communicate a strategic USP that moves the needle!  The best ad folks learn this distinction early on.  Many others learn it out of a practical necessity to put food on the table.  Either way, the purely creative aspect of advertising far too frequently seems to override the business and strategic realities - always to the detriment of the client and the brand.

I think this is a largely ineffectual commercial because it doesn't work hard enough to integrate the brand into the "story" of the ad, it doesn't present any compelling notions about the brand other than the protagonist of the spot wears them.  Is that really enough to persuade people to buy?  I think that approach sells consumers far too short.

It's a beautiful piece of art.  Unfortunately, I'm just not sure how many pairs of sunglasses it will sell.  The same team that created this spot could have done so much more.  And, to this marketers eye, that's a crying shame!

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