san miguel beer's jet li tv spot --- leaving too much to the imagination

we use celebrities in commercials for a specific reason. the most obvious one and that is generic to all of them is that they are very popular. but beyond generic popularity (popularity is synonymous to celebrity, right?), they have this specific calling. they are known for something specific.

time for the name association game. when you mention the name jet li - what's the first word that comes to mind? that word will most likely be something that describes the picture on the right. there are no other words you can think of, other than those that match that picture.

but those words, i failed to see in this san miguel beer tv spot. well, ok parts of it are in the commercial, but it does not impress you as perhaps that picture does. or the movies that we have all seen jet li to have appeared in.

jet li scenes are typically breathtaking and awesome. in many of these movie scenes, often five words come to mind : "how did he do that?".

in this san miguel tv spot, we know he is jet li but after seeing the moves, we entertain doubts if that was really jet li. these are the words that come to mind - it is so lame, it can't be jet li.

this commercial fails to impress us. and i think a lot of it comes from two parts - the story of the ad and a much bigger part from the directorial treatment of the ad. not enough effects, lack of imagination and no pizazz.

if you have jet li as your talent, you need, in fact it's a must that you hire a director who does martial arts movies. plus you need to hire production staff and perhaps even shoot in hongkong where many of them are based. i don't know if san miguel did that for this commercial. if they did, it does not show. if they did not, it's a critical error.

and maybe you will not want to have too much of a simple story to tell. simple stories are good for commercials, but not in this case as it does not allow jet li to show what he can do.

and did i mention manny pacquaio already? the reason i have not mentioned the pacman is because in this ad, he is hardly mentioned, meaning shown.

that's the other part i don't get. why didn't they make an ad where the story revolves around jet li and manny pacquiao? why did they choose to make manny a prop, like an extra in this tv spot? all that many did was smile and nothing more.

think about it -- a world famous boxer and a world famous martial artist. that's a great story right there. pregnant with possibilities. and yes --- wham, bang and atomic!

because this san miguel beer ad underperforms, it is a WAWAM!