Grant McCracken and Little Richard
Grant McCracken is Gaga over Geico, and tells us why. I’ll add something:
There’s a serious problem with using “real customers, not celebrities” to speak for a product, and it’s more acute in audio than in print, and worse yet in video. Problem? These people are boring. Boooooooring.
Check out the ad Grant is writing about. This woman is pleasant, even good-looking, but dull as dishwater. She hasn’t been trained to have any “presence” on camera, and she can’t raise a trace of emotion in me.
Solution: as Gerald Weinberg wrote, “If you can’t fix it, feature it.” Put her next to Little Richard, and two things happen.
- As psychologists put it, he “bears her affect” for her, expressing the emotion (at least the excitement) she’s not good at expressing. This engages me in a way she couldn’t on her own.
- She sits with perfect aplomb in the presence of a man howling like a lunatic. By the contrast with Little Richard, her plainness becomes ever more apparent, and the sense that she’s incapable of guile is driven home.
The setting is wonderfully clever at heightening the second effect. To all appearances, she has just fed Little Richard a wholesome home-cooked meal (vice-versa is unthinkable, and we tend not to think in terms of a studio set.) This makes her even more the “regular gal” she is. The very qualities in her that could have made us decide this is a good time for a bathroom break have now increased our regard for her. Although we stayed for Richard’s antics, after it’s over we’re glad we stayed for her. Richard kept us there so that her very plainness could win us over.
BTW, I’m glad to be posting about McCracken’s blog. It’s superb. After reading it for quite some time, I’ve added it to my blogroll. I hope my readers will subscribe and check it out regularly.