Comments on: head on – apply directly to the forehead http://blog.nolinlechasseur.com/2006/10/05/head-on-apply-directly-to-the-forehead/ business-to-business marketing strategy, and other stuff Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:52:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: avril http://blog.nolinlechasseur.com/2006/10/05/head-on-apply-directly-to-the-forehead/comment-page-1/#comment-13 avril Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:32:37 +0000 http://blog.nolinlechasseur.com/?p=23#comment-13 The Head-On thing? Ooo, so glad you asked. This is toothsome. It’s the resurrection of annoying sincerity as an advertising approach. I don’t mean the actor is sincere, I mean the advertiser is sincerely convinced that this is the thing that’ll sell their stuff---and goshdarmit, they’re right. Have you noticed all the retro ads out there?—the ones that send up Advertising as a way of excusing themselves from doing what works? You know, the nerds and the shills and the sarcastic slice-of-life dramas with people beaming shit-eatingly over the products? The head-on people (and others) are flashing back to the breathy 50s-60s, the first rush of media-bonerism when everyone was all thrilled that they could talk to big audiences all at once and thought they had to somehow *yell* to make it work! the Head-on ad is kinda like that, only the repetition functions as the yelling. As well as the terse, imperative, military syntax from the perky chick. (Which also happens to work beautifully with our steadily melting attention spans. Gimme seven words, three times, and I don’t gotta do no work to remember. Me happy.) There’s a sweetness to this, it’s like watching something our kids made when they were playing dress up. (They wanted to make a commercial but they’re just too excited to do anything except jump up and down and yell their slogan over and over.) Remember, everything else in advertising *has been done.* The only thing LEFT to throw out there for fun and profit is plain old BAD advertising, cuz we don’t trust earnestness anymore, anyway. So now we’re full circle back around to *Fuck It, Bad Ads WORK.* And all the ad agency execs who won awards for their campaigns that produced a lump in the throat can kiss the asses of those whose campaigns produced a lump in the pants called a wallet. Sell my shit, period. p.s. nother angle: we like to give each other verbal cues in public that we're With It. and these little sticky phrases (like the head-on one) are perfect to show the acquaintance, like the old primate display of teeth---only now we display our real-time awareness of what's new. we intimidate with information. useless, maybe, but VERY CURRENT. SORRY FR LONG POST. a.d. The Head-On thing?
Ooo, so glad you asked. This is toothsome.

It’s the resurrection of annoying sincerity as an advertising approach.
I don’t mean the actor is sincere, I mean the advertiser is sincerely convinced that this is the thing that’ll sell their stuff—and goshdarmit, they’re right.

Have you noticed all the retro ads out there?—the ones that send up Advertising as a way of excusing themselves from doing what works? You know, the nerds and the shills and the sarcastic slice-of-life dramas with people beaming shit-eatingly over the products?

The head-on people (and others) are flashing back to the breathy 50s-60s, the first rush of media-bonerism when everyone was all thrilled that they could talk to big audiences all at once and thought they had to somehow *yell* to make it work!

the Head-on ad is kinda like that, only the repetition functions as the yelling. As well as the terse, imperative, military syntax from the perky chick.

(Which also happens to work beautifully with our steadily melting attention spans. Gimme seven words, three times, and I don’t gotta do no work to remember. Me happy.)

There’s a sweetness to this, it’s like watching something our kids made when they were playing dress up. (They wanted to make a commercial but they’re just too excited to do anything except jump up and down and yell their slogan over and over.)

Remember, everything else in advertising *has been done.* The only thing LEFT to throw out there for fun and profit is plain old BAD advertising, cuz we don’t trust earnestness anymore, anyway. So now we’re full circle back around to *Fuck It, Bad Ads WORK.*

And all the ad agency execs who won awards for their campaigns that produced a lump in the throat can kiss the asses of those whose campaigns produced a lump in the pants called a wallet. Sell my shit, period.

p.s. nother angle:
we like to give each other verbal cues in public that we’re With It. and these little sticky phrases (like the head-on one) are perfect to show the acquaintance, like the old primate display of teeth—only now we display our real-time awareness of what’s new. we intimidate with information. useless, maybe, but VERY CURRENT.

SORRY FR LONG POST. a.d.

]]>