Can you hear me now?.....Not so Good.

We've all been there: sitting down on the edge of our seat, barely blinking... the scene is getting intense and then... No! Commercials. But commercials, just like anything, can be good and accomplish just what they're suppose to, or they can be irritating and a waste of air space. But what makes a commercial a good one?

I've grown up in front of a television being exposed to countless numbers of commercials in my lifetime so I'd like to say I can differentiate a good commercial from a bad one.

A good commercial will:
-grasp the audiences attention
-entertain the audience
-connect with them in a personal level
-be memorable from the rest
-persuade the consumer to try their product

An example of a good commercial is the one of State Farms; "state of unrest." I think this is a good commercial because it is very entertaining to watch, it gets the message across clearly and effectively that State Farms is always there, as their slogan states "Like a good neighbor, State Farms is there." It also makes good use of the time on the air to let their audience know about their new services, which is that now they have a 24- hour customer service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47cAxRX3aDg

Another great example is the Snickers bar commercial. Their catchy slogan "Hungry? Grab a Snicker." The message they're trying to get across is that whenever customers are hungry, they should grab a snicker because it satisfies their hunger and because when they're hungry, they are not being themselves. There's more than one of these commercials but my favorite one is where there's two guys and two girls at a party and one of them is trying to talk to the girl and he says "We're not good enough for you?.... What do you  model? Gloves?" I found this commercial so clever, a great way to re- enforce their message, and personally hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3njod6lveI#


By far, one of the worst commercials I have seen has been an old Verizon commercial where a Verizon employee would walk around asking "Can you hear me now? Good." The commercial was annoying, it lacked creativity, and it did not entertain the audiences. The only good thing it did was to persuade consumers to switch to the company because it showed that it had good reception. But the commercial did not exactly accomplish its task because it did not show it. You had a Verizon employee TELLING you, not showing you that the reception was good. In a competitive market like that of wireless companies, it is difficult to change consumers to switch to your company, but commercials like these certainly did nothing to help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPwPo-IAQ-E

Commercials in general have a very specific task; and that is to persuade consumers that their company is the best among the competition. But with that pressure and consumers becoming less gullible, it is easy to miss the target and make a bad commercial. However, once in a while comes a commercial that will appeal to all audiences and become memorable.