Dear ad agency creatives & account people,
I’m sure you’re tired of your friends and family telling you how much they hate the commercials you lovingly write, produce and work so hard to get your clients to grudgingly green light, not to mention the random vitriol from total strangers. Or the many dates that have ended in tears when you mention your work. Or maybe you’ve begun gradually obfuscating your profession in polite conversation, claiming you are in a more nebulous field like “marketing” or “branding” rather than owning up to the fact that you are, in a lot of peoples’ minds, a worthless suckfish clinging to the sleek and noble underbelly of their favorite TV shows.

Fear not! There is a simple way to regain pride in your work and earn the plaudits of your fellow man. You see, the majority of what you produce does not at all deserve such vituperation. In fact, most of it is quite amusing and well-crafted. In the best of your work, only one or two viewings create an indelible connection between the product and its benefit in the potential customer’s mind. And that should be a good feeling for you, shouldn’t it?

But here’s the rub: once we the viewing public see your little bit of genius 5 times in an hour, well, even the sweetest rose will begin to stink like a freshly opened can of lutefisk. And that not only tarnishes your formerly sterling work but also drags the client right into the crosshairs of our discontent as well.

Take, for example, this typically funny commercial for DIRECTV featuring Rob Lowe and his super creepy doppelganger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMfzh8Zfi5U

Well done & kudos! Except that there are only two spots in this campaign so far and they have been played to death already. While watching the MLB Postseason and college and pro football games alone we’ve probably seen “Super Creepy” about 30+ times. And frankly we’re about ready to switch to Univision for International Friendly soccer matches every time it comes on again.

Now contrast that with these equally funny but much more numerous Dodge Dart commercials, featuring comedic actor Craig Robinson and his psycho neighbor who has been admonished not to touch Craig’s Dart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctZsLiAV9eg

Now am I saying the work on the Dart campaign is significantly better than the DIRECTV campaign? No. In fact, you could argue that the DIRECTV ads are better in purist terms because the benefit is made so abundantly clear. But because there are at least five or more of the Dart commercials in rotation as opposed to two of the current DIRECTV spots, we’re not sick of them yet. While we reflexively reach for the mute button after previously being amused by separated-at-birth Rob Lowes, we’re still happy to sit through the full Dodge Dart commercial because we may not have seen the one airing or even if we have, we haven’t seen it six hundred and twelve times in a month!

So what’s the lesson here? That’s a simple one: Make more spots. Easy for me to say, right? Except that once you convince your rich-as-hell corporate clients that people are tuning their brand out in droves because they are acting like cheap bastards by not allowing your agency to create multiple ads for their benefit I tend to think they’ll see the light. Put it this way, which would they rather: a large payout up front for the creative and spot buy with big returns in terms of sales and name recognition in exchange — or by being penny wise and pound foolish, budget one ad that runs endlessly on cable that people will come to loathe like a pop song gone horribly wrong? Do they really want their commercial to become the “MMMBop” of spots?*

Yes, you can steal that threat and I think any moneybags corporation should be able to clearly see the answer to that question and the benefit to them in springing for more ads. Then they’ll allow you to get on with the business of making a slew of fantastic commercials that you can be proud of and don’t have to disown come Thanksgiving dinner at the in-laws. Problem solved and good for everyone involved, wouldn’t you say?
You’re welcome.

*Bonus: If you start the Hanson and the Dodge videos at just about the same time the effect is very nearly… sublime.