new Tang Iced Tea Ad - the need to break more than ice, need to break logic and story flow

tang of kraft foods recently launched a new juice drink, Tang Iced Tea and released an intro tv spot behind it's launch. ogilvy is the ad agency.

tag line : BRAKE THE ICE!

to understand this tv commercial is to break more than ice, you need to break your skull to get to your brains to get it.

they must have thought this is a great commercial - there's dancing, there's dance music and it uses a Dance Revolution type of video game that is very familiar to many, specially the young. everything looks and feels energetic, fun and happy. such a fun commercial won't miss, until you actually listen and pay attention to the copy.

visually, it's a story about a mom trying to keep up with her son on the dance video game. thick ice forms like a wall between mom and son to indicate she was unable to keep up. the son mixes tang iced tea, the son "breaks" the wall of ice with a tang iced tea drink, she drinks and she miraculously was able to keep up with her son.

just looking at the visual story, the first question you ask is --- where does the "breaking the ice" tagline fit in there? it is actually unclear what the answer is to that question. there was a literal thick block of ice that formed between mother and son like a wall that the son broke with tang iced tea, so i suppose that is where the connection is.

given the visual story, it meant tang iced tea is able to break the barrier between mother and son. and this barrier is not the psychological one, but of the physical and agility type between child and mother. the visuals of the commercial show that tang iced tea solves the problem of lack of energy and agility that the son had and the mother did not.

so, tang iced tea gives energy and agility? yes and no.

the visuals say yes but based on the copy, the answer is no. the visuals dramatize the problem and the benefit of energy and agility that tang iced tea solves, but the copy is not saying that at all. copy at the product middle said tang iced tea is a "refreshing blend of tea and fruit flavors and the goodness of nutrition". we can stretch the "nutrition" part to say that that us what gives the energy but that is really over stretching it.

refreshment and energy giving in advertising terms are two very different concepts. refreshment means relief or a cool down after expending energy. energy giving is more an active form of product benefit. one is relief, the other infusion.

the tagline "break the ice" is another mystery in this ad. taglines are supposed to be a brief, eloquent and memorable summary of the product promise or product benefit. from it also comes the brand's core positioning. but that was not how they used the tagline here. the "break the ice" tagline refer only to the literal breaking of the wall of ice by the son when he gave his mom tang iced tea.

here's a summary of this ad : this ad positions tang iced tea on a refreshment and nutrition platform in copy but dramatizes energy and agility in visuals. that is a very clear case of the worst kind of no audio-video lock. they are showing something they are saying.

it uses a tagline that does not summarize the brand's core positioning but refers only to the visual device of breaking the wall of ice that formed between mom and son. the use of the strategic tagline element on a very tactical component makes it weak and confusing.

this looks like a composite of 3 separate storyboards pasted together to form one. it's like they took the best parts form 3 separate storyboards and put them all into one, like a the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. unfortunately, the end product is an ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle. it is a WAWAM!





ps: i found it very disconcerting that the dad and the daughter all of a sudden appeared from nowhere at the second half of the ad. they were not in the scene at the start of the commercial, we can see the sofa at the background at the start of the commercial and it was empty of people. its a very basic directorial treatment error. very amateurish directorial treatment.