Nissan Commercial of 7 Day Old Sentra Live-In Doesn’t Stink


Watch the commercial at:
http://www.supercarnews.net/nissan-video/2007-nissan-sentra-commercial-.html

Meet Marc Horowitz, a San Francisco native, he is a photographer’s assistant. He is the main character of Nissan’s new 2007 Sentra campaign. It is taking a younger, documentary approach to their commercials. An article from Ad Week states that “the campaign derived from research photos of 20-30 year old drivers who essentially lived inside their Sentras”, I think its pretty genius thinking. Over 168 hours of footage were filmed over the 7 day period. Some ‘Rules of the Game’ per Ad Week:

During the week, he had to prepare at least four meals in the immediate vicinity of the Sentra; could not set foot outside the car for any reason 12-5 a.m.; and was required to host at least one social function in the car. Horowitz was not allowed to return to his apartment during the seven days. Thompson said the campaign exploits pop culture trends with episodic story structure, real-life adventures, blogging and vlogging.

“Exploiting”? Is that supposed to be a good thing? Well, Nissan says that they are trying to ‘move away from interrupting their consumers and toward creating opportunities to interact with them’, which is important to realize and be able to follow through with; like with this commerical. On the same note, they also said that they are ‘in transition from storytelling to conversation’, which falls right in line with Naked Conversations, point of making the communication between company and consumer more informal and more about the human element.

I like the new approach, the younger, more fun, exciting, and spontaneous side of this concept theme. Its time that Nissan do something to make them stand out from the competition, and this is defiantly something to take about over the water cooler. Although I hate reality shows, and this seems borderline exploitive, when they call it documentary, it sounds so much more artistic, creative, and positive. The commercial feels real due to the footage, and everyone can appreciate a commercial that isn’t shoving things down your throat or trying to finagle you into buying their crap product.

Although there's not alot of information about this ad because its so new, form your own opinions, and let me know what you think.

WAMU Says Other Bankers Are Like Gerbils


To watch the commercials, go to:
http://www.trappedbanker.com/wamu.htm

We all know the Washington Mutual’s commercials, it is their largest to date; they are funny, creative, memorable, one of a kind, and cohesive. The premise of ‘stodgy‘bankers who are kept in a pen and fed champagne through an oversized gerbil bottle to shut them up; stereotypical, old, fat, men with English accents, named Charles try to be a WAMU banker, but can’t take that WAMU is giving away free checking, and over withdrawal fees, rips off his WAMU uniform and returns to his banker buddies. WAMU’s message is that their agenda isn't purley for their monetary benefit, they want to make things easier on their customer, make them pay less, and they want to be seen differently than the typical money-hungry and greedy bankers.
From Payment News:
"The overall campaign launch is designed to break through the clutter and reach out to consumers," said Chris Matthews, Washington Mutual senior vice president of advertising and brand. "At the end of the day, consumers are the ones who benefit from the convenience and value never before seen in a free checking account."

I think that they all the commercials are right on. It successfully brings a different, positive light to the stuffy banker façade. All of the commercials make the campaign cohesive and powerful. Boasting ‘free’ everything’s, it seems like WAMU is the first to advertise its consumer-friendly-benefits-side. The creative advertising team said that they came up with the idea, but WAMU wanted them to push it further, so they went bigger. I think it works so well because it’s a new way to look at these bankers and because it’s in this light that we want to see our own bankers.

Interested to know more? Read and learn more about the campaign here:
http://www.paymentsnews.com/2006/03/wamu_launches_a.html

To hear what others have to say:
http://viewtank.blogspot.com/2006/03/washington-mutual-commercials-funny-or.htmlhttp://scrutinator.blogspot.com/2006/06/wamu-ads-leftist-caricature.html
http://www.adjab.com/2006/08/21/wamu-serves-champagne-in-a-rabbit-bottle/