Creating a negative image

The Fido ad depicting a shy guy who has gained enough confidence to ask a girl for a drink after class, only to be faced with an awkward reply of nothing followed by a text message simply saying ‘No!’ is more than just bad. This ad makes women look cruel and heartless to men and reinforces the instinct shy men have that women will reject them – not politely but harshly.

The media buy was also either badly planned or was poorly executed because it ran in practically every break during most prime-time shows. With a brand that has this much money to waste, perhaps they should invest further in testing their creative.

In the meantime, the ad should be pulled as it creates a negative image for Fido as well as for women and should be added to the list of annoying and insulting Fido ads their latest campaign has generated.

Yolanda Beasley

Media Planner

MediaVest, Toronto

Nationalist pride

The most heartfelt commercial I have seen in a while is the Coca-Cola ad that features the Olympics. When I see the words ‘if they didn’t hear us cheering before…bet they can now’ I well up with tears. It is not hitting people over the head with the product, but more of a product placement that caters to our newfound nationalist pride. It is a wonderful, touching, moving ad and I cannot get enough of it.

Lou Israel

Freelance proofreader, Toronto

Fatigue factor

I have been watching the commercial for AOL which keeps bombarding our senses every three minutes, especially on CNN, and makes me wonder whether they or their media people have lost it!

To begin with the commercial’s (and the brand’s) personality is akin to a loud roadside salesman who is shouting in your ear with a bullhorn and is doing it every 3 to 4 minutes. Haven’t the guys at AOL or their agency heard of the fatigue factor in media scheduling?

I could understand if the commercial was humorous or creatively brilliant so one wouldn’t mind seeing it so often (case in point the brother-sister commercial for Dimetapp). But this?

The only reason they are running it so often is obviously because it (CNN) happens to be AOL’s own channel. I can almost hear the brand manager saying ‘let’s fill CNN with AOL commercials. It’s FREE!’ I wish they could use the same energy to produce some decent creative!

Raj Rao

Advertising Consultant, Toronto