The not very best ad of the year

Posted by guest blogger Michael Chase

Last week Danny wrote about Bike Hero, a viral effort for the Guitar Hero World Tour campaign. Indeed, an innovative approach to driving awareness and appeal for Activision's video game franchise that is feeling the pressure from rival product Rock Band. With such a hit (over 1.1 million YouTube hits and counting), it is hard to imagine how the same campaign could yield a TV commercial that is just so bad.

I am referring to the Risky Business spoof featuring sports icons Kobe, A-Rod, Michael Phelps and Tony Hawk.



When I first saw it last month, I found myself physically squirming in awkward discomfort. The same way I felt when I first watched Meet the Parents.

I think it is fair to assume that Bob Seger is not on any of these guys' playlists. The way each of them jumped around in such forced, rhythmically-challenged ways, made me feel bad for them all. While I can appreciate the intent, this is yet another example of how NOT to use athletes in advertising.

Where so many brands go wrong, is failing to find the right intersection between their marketing objectives, their brand's attributes and perceptions, and the attributes and perceptions of the athlete they choose to represent them. Each of these three areas should be well thought out. Not just so a brand can choose the right athlete endorser to sign, but also to have effective criteria to develop, create and judge the resulting communication.

For every diamond (Nike "Fate" Leave Nothing commercial w/ LT & Polamalu)...



there are so many more pieces of coal (Gillette Champions commercial w/ Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Thierry Henry)...



And while I think the Guitar Hero commercial is a piece of coal, they did create an interesting Director's Cut...