Ok, these spots are from the competition in my market - so I'm automatically not supposed to like them ... but I wanted to get the opinion of others. I think the anchors do an ok job with it - but it just seems so... fake. So staged.
Now, is that because I'm a tv guy or do all viewers see through this stuff? I can't honestly say I know for sure that viewers are smart enough for that... maybe they eat this up. These spots actually make me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Watch. Discuss.
I will say WKMG has done some really good work - but these I'm not so sure about.
7 comments:
I agree. They're nicely produced, but a bit long and pretentious. The first and third ones I couldn't even tell you what they were about, and I just watched them. I liked the second one the best, even though I thought it was the most pretentious of the three. It did a good job telling the story of some of the work that goes into putting together a newscast, but the focus on "this anchor" made me roll my eyes a bit.
And as a Mid-southeastern Golden Triangle Texonian, I always get a bit offended when other made up geographical areas try to puff themselves up.
"We're Central Floridians. We're not like those Northern Floridians or Panhandle Floridians, or heaven forbid, like those Southern Floridians. We're better... different."
On a serious note, I think it would make for a cool spot to follow the life of a news story from first emergence all the way to coming out of the anchor's mouth. REALLY show how much work it takes to get a single story on the air. Maybe even focus on the behind the scenes people a bit more than usual. I'm sure it's been done before, but I can't ever recall seeing a spot that tackles it quite this way.
You are not being too harsh just because they're your competition. These spots are awful.
I don't know where to start.
It won't matter if a viewer buys the message, because there's nothing for a viewer to remember about them. They're so wordy and preachy that there's no clear message to them. They wrap around themselves and never go anywhere. Did the anchors write these themselves?
And making a comparison to the movie Anchorman is a big mistake, especially since the only thing the spot does is show me you a) have no sense of humor about the movie or apparently anything else, b)probably take yourself even more seriously that Ron Burgundy, and c) are too stupid to see that this spot makes that movie look like a documentary about how people in a TV station really are.
Worst offense: there's no WIIFM. You're just stroking yourself, and I'm getting grossed out. These make me cringe. I want to look away, but I can't. Ick.
They're a waste of some decent lighting and shooting. I'd pull the first two, but might run the third in a very limited rotation.
The first is the worst. She's got a terrible delivery. Have the announcer do the vo and use her to start and end the spot. The 2nd was good until he pops off "this anchor"...whatever. Change that line and you'd have something. The last is probably the best. I agree there's no WIIFM, but it does promote their anchors...and we all know that viewers only care about the anchors anyway.
I actually like the beginning of the first spot.... then it got cheesy and generic.
Call me a cynic but hasn't TV news proven with all of our scam and rip-off stories and political coverage... that when someone says, "you can trust me", you should be skeptical?
If you want to prove to me you're all about family or community… Show me some examples. Talk about your charity efforts, your hobbies, specifics about a story you covered that meant something or changed you, let us meet your own family. Anything that's real.
Of course that’s easier said than done…
I'll go back to working on my own cheesy, generic promos.
Evil Monkey was spot on about the "Anchorman" mention. The whole promo started to feel like a spoof. I'm pretty sure that's not what they were going for... but you never know.
These spots felt dreadfully long. They were nicely shot, however. I'll give them that.
And being that I'm freezing in Indiana with a snow storm on the way tomorrow night... I wish I lived there, too!
Peachy, pretentious, and absolutely not memorable. I stopped listening to what she was saying about 10 seconds in. The message is to convoluted and wordy. Remember, keep it simple.
There's also too much talking at the viewer, and no talking with the viewer. It's not a conversation, and the broll they picked doesn't really stir any kind of emotions.
Nicely shot though, production values are great.
Good production...waste of film and money. I don't believe her to be credible because she says so...show me why I should trust you. These spots missed an opportunity to connect with viewers, for the very reason our blog host mentioned...they're too plastic. Knowing the market well I can tell you no one living there refers to themselves as "Central Floridian". Were there any focus groups who saw this? Tell me they weren't drinking when they gave a thumbs up.
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