you know, manny pacquiao is a loser!

i don't get this tv ad of manny pacquiao. i just didn't shake my head when i first saw this ad, i shook it many times and every time i see the ad on tv. i also end up talking to myself, why the hell did they make this ad this way. and at the end of the 30s ad, i get my cellphone out and my ipod touch and key in a to-do note for myself : "DO NOT BUY VITWATER!". i don't use caps even in my cellphone, i use caps on this one. ooops, i had entered that already the last time i saw the ad. geez, i must have tried to key that in to my gadgets a hundred times already, the same number of times i had seen this ad.

yes! this ad is being aired at very heavy weight! the pacquiao - hutton fight is a few days from now, they are making the most of torturing me! this vitwater ad is one more strong reason why i don't watch local shows on tv!

i usually say this at the end of the discussion. but for this one i like to say it on the 3rd paragraph - this manny pacquiao ad of vitwater is a WAWAM! and has ADS Sindrome! and all other acronyms i am yet to invent in this blog!





whew! we will take this slow now...

water with vitamins which is what vitwater is a product for the AB upper C target market. the mass market, broad C and the DE will not bother with this product. the price will keep the mass market away from this product. to expect the mass market even as an intentional occasional user is water under the bridge of marketing possibilities.

the AB and upper C target market know pacquaio, most likely 100% of them. some of them even pay P600.00 for pay per view venues, have cable in their homes and most watches his fights. there is no question that pacquiao has an appeal to the target market.

it is also VERY safe to assume the AB upper C target market is an english speaking target market. here's the part i don't get and the major reason i want to get my cellphone and touch to key in "DO NOT BUY VITWATER" all over again - why in the world did they make pacquiao speak in english?!!!

what the f_ck is that?

pacquiao is obviously not a an english language speaker. let me say it first, i don't take that against him, i take it against vitwater for making pacquaio speak in english! the accent drives me crazy. this ad does not make pacquiao endearing to its target market. it makes pacquiao a joke, a caricature to make fun of. in this ad, vitwater rapes pacquiao of his hero status among filipinos.

what gets me here is that vitwater and the ad agency knew what they were making pacquiao do and what they were turning him in to. everybody knows pacquiao sounds funny when he talks in english. he sounds a little funny when he talks in filipino as he has a mindanao accent but that is not a turn off. in fact his mindanao accent makes it endearing. he is a man from mindanao from humble beginnings doing well for himself and his country, having this mindanao accent to his pilipino is a good thing. but having an accent when he speaks in english in a tv ad makes him a joke. all of that vitwater and the ad agency must have known.

the AB upper C target market do understand pilipino well. there is no reason for vitwater not to make him speak in pilipino. it could have been as understandable as english but with the added benefit of making manny look real and yes endearing.

the copy or script of this ad to me is a mystery. who wrote the script? the copy is so sparse, lacks a sale and sounds very amateurish. how could an ad agency write copy like this and how can they have presented copy like that to the client?

the other half of the mystery - was this a scriptless tv ad? like they just asked manny to say whatever he wanted and they just rolled the camera? manny is a champion fighter, not a copywriter, surely they cannot expect manny to come up with gems in copy?

the copy is just too one-dimensional and too shallow. this vitamins in water product is pioneering. it's a new product concept that has a lot of potential for a compelling story that can be matched with a hero who also has a multi-dimensional persona around him. a new product and pioneering product concept plus pacquiao could have been a match made in heaven, but vitwater did not cease the day. the ad does not at all feel like its introducing a pioneering product.

and we have not yet mentioned the fact that it is really bad english. the english used in this ad, and we assume this was written by the ad agency is english of a 5 year old who is just learning to speak it - stocatto, few words, few thoughts, few vocabulary and bad construction.

there are many other things that went wrong in this ad. but the biggest among the small things is a directorial and editorial snafu. at frame 0:06 as pacquaio on voice over was saying "...but for me, there is something better, you know", the commercial cuts to pacquiao looking at someone off camera then goes into a laugh. the scene before and after the pacquiao on a laugh scene showed pacquiao in a serious mood, not to mention the background music had the same serious atmosphere and tone.

in audio, manny was delivering a key selling point for the product - vitwater is better than just water, a serious thing and yet the visual showed manny laughing like he was laughing at the line, losing all credibility and believability.

that is just the tip of the failure of this ad. the biggest error of this ad is the use of english for manny's speaking lines and the one-dimensional, shallow and zero sale in the copy. the bigger error is that this ad has completely mis-read its target market, the AB upper C. we love manny, but we learned to hate vitwater. (note to self: key in entry into cellphone and touch "DO NOT BUY VITWATER").

i feel bad for pacquiao. i don't think any of this is pacquiao's fault. the ad agency and vitwater made pacquiao, our hero, look really bad.

okay, okay, before we end - i know that you know and that you want to know what i know. i know you have been waiting for me to mention it --- manny said "you know..." a total of 4 times in the 30 second ad. that means there were 4 irritants in that ad, you know?

this is a WAWAM!, has ADS Sindrome and all the other acronyms i am yet to think of in the future.

view the vitwater tv spot here: http://tinyurl.com/c7tzcp or scroll down.

why put manny pacquiao in a bad light? a caricature of pinoy weakness?

in ads, a lot of effort is put into making the talents, most specially celebrities to look in the best possible light. ad agencies hire professional make up artists, costume designers and the best cameramen to make sure the talents look good on screen. directors are very particular to make sure that aside from making sure the storyboard is delivered, the talent should also look good. some celebrities even make it part of the their contract that their preferred make-up artist are hired for tv ads they appear in.


clients choose talents in their ads, specially celebrities, because they bring something good to the ad and the product. use a well loved celebrity and they expect sales to go up.

so why did vitwater make manny pacquiao look bad in their ad?

burger king's paris hilton spicy bbq burger tv ad - really hot but for all the wrong reasons

i'm struggling here, don't know what to call this ad is it a WAWAM!, one that has ADS Sindrome?

that is also the problem of this ad. is this ad a car ad? i was desperately waiting for the ad to show the brand name of the ad, peering through the legs of paris hilton trying to get glimpse of the insignia of the car on the hood or the grill of the car.

is this an ad for a car wash soap? those suds are big and abundant and they slide ever so slowly..... on the most important body parts..... of the car, great to clean the car.

or maybe the sponge? that sponge looked real fluffy, soft and oh so unyielding. press and squeeze and responds back to you, a tactile celebration of what is good and oh so awesome in a sponge.

then it occurred to me - this must be the latest paris hilton sex home made video. you know, the type that was taken by an ex-boyfriend that was kept inside that storage space rental that went unpaid, forcing the owners to sell the contents. didn't realize paris had long legs and fully formed with muscles on the best parts of her body. and those poses that hid the best parts of her body but telling us there is more to come under it. we were waiting for it to be shown.

but that did not happen. at the end, it's an ad for burger king's spicy bbq burger.

what the fuck was that?

on my first question - i got it figured out, this ad is both a WAWAM! and has ADS Sindrome. that's hot! not!

add the Coke Zero ad, it will equal to a sum zero ad, plus ADS Sindrome

What is with Coke and other worldly characters in their ads?

This Coke Zero ad is the second time this marketing year that they have other worldly characters in their ads. The first ones were the angel and the devil in their regular Coke thematic brandsell advertising.

In that ad, the angel in heaven got curious on the fizz that coke was making, flies down to earth to check it out, tries Coke, gets enamoured with it, then decides to become human to continue to enjoy Coke. Cute, interesting and straightforward story.

Except for one thing- they got carried away and added a devil character to the story where the angel turned human meets a handsome man who also enjoys Coke but turns out to be the devil as a last close up shot of the man reveals he has the horn impressions on his forehead, implying he is a devil turned human.

We did say a lot about this ad, things like the wings of the angel and the devil, etc. read all here in full : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/coca%20cola

This new Coke Zero product introduces new characters to their line-up, most likely coming from Coke's large talent pool of other worldly characters- the mermaid and the centaur (ad featured here is the mermaid). We have to give 5 stars to Coke's talent casters for their stellar skills for finding such stellar pool of talents. They must travel far and wide to find such a wide range of talents. Up next will probably be Tinkerbell herself or the tikbalang.




This ad is about a male hunk in a swimming pool whose attention is caught by a hot lady drinking Coke Zero. It's unclear if the it's the hot lady in a swimsuit or the new Coke Zero product that she is drinking that caused him to move towards her. But the hunk uses Coke Zero banter as an opening line to strike a conversation with the hottie.

We all know that Coke is really just colored water with lots of sugar in it and that common knowledge the hunk uses to talk to the hottie, with a zinger line : "Impossible, right? Real Coke taste without sugar? Impossible!". The hottie says it is possible and he better believe it, saying that it is time the hunk believes in the impossible. The hottie dives into the water revealing her lower half, she revelas her tail, the hottie is a mermaid. And the mermaid that got away from the hunk as she swims back to sea.

The ad wants us to believe the impossible - the taste of regular Coke in Coke Zero even though it has zero sugar in it. We are the kind who are very skeptical and not prone to easily believe those that we know are not possible. Apparently for us, it takes a lot to make us believe in the impossible.

We are supposed to believe the impossible that Coke Zero was able to achieve because a mermaid says so. A mermaid who all of us know is not possible as mermaids don't exist in real life, except in fairy tales and cartoons which are all man-made.

That is like shooting themselves in the foot.

The ad wants us to change our mind about something that going in we think is not real and not possible. The ad wants us to think that a regular Coke taste is now made real and possible. And yet the character they used in the ad to convince us on that is a mermaid who we all know is not real and not possible. We are supposed to believe a fairy tale character, an unreal on something that is supposed to be true in real life.

The use of the mermaid can be cute but it defies the logic of what they want to achieve in the ad. The first question that popped in my mind was - what is it that Coke wants us to believe? Is this ad about the reality of Coke Zero tasting like regular Coke without the sugar or is it about the unreality of mermaids?

It's wierd that they are using an unreal character to make us believe reality.

This Coke Zero ad when you add the two key story elements of the ad do end up to a sum zero. In other words, it's a WAWAM! and has ADS Sindrome.

another english 101 tv spot with ADS Sindrome

here is another tv spot in germany again that sells english lessons. the same mistake is committed in this ad - the ADS Sindrome.

the target market of this ad are non-english speakers to whom they are selling their english lessons to. the humorous part being in english means it will be understood by english speakers, not their target market. given the tagline in the end, "improve your english", granted that their target market are those with some knowledge of english, that does not guarantee their target market with some english knowledge will get the humor. a good grasp of a language is a requirement in appreciating humor.

this ad is a WAWAM! and has ADS Sindrome.




view the other english 101 tv spot here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/10/english-101-if-you-dont-get-it-it-might.html

view other ads with ADS Sindrome here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/ADS%20Sindrome

english 101 - if you don't get it, it might bite you in the ass!

first, i thought this ad does not need any introduction or explanation. but life can't be that simple.

please view the ad first, then scroll down for my comments on this ad.
















if you are reading this, that means you understand english. and let me take a guess - at the start of the ad, your mouth was open in wonder, even scratched your head. with those lyrics, why were the characters in the ad enjoying the song? then at the end of the ad, when you saw the supers, you laughed!

then you scrolled down and you are here now. and you still have a smile from viewing that ad.

here's the problem of that ad ---- you found it funny and entertaining because you understand english! this ad was aired in germany and the target audience of the ad is actually people who do not speak and understand english. to someone who does not understand english, the lyrics of the song, "i wanna fuck you in the ass" DOES NOT MEAN A THING! and because those words don't mean a thing, then the humor and the punchline in the end is totally lost on the target audeince!

the only way this ad will work is if the non-english speaking target audience is watching this ad with someone who does speak english and translates the lyrics of the song into german. or if the non-english speaking target audience understand a little bit of english and happen to know the meaning of the lyrics.

it is funny, but it is a WAWAM! actually it is also has ADS Sindrome.

microsoft's $300M seinfeld ad campaign has ADS? Sindrome

tagline : The Future. Delicious.

microsoft launched the much anticipated $300M ad campaign featuring jerry seinfeld last thursday. this ad campaign intends to shore up microsoft's sagging brand image due to problems on vista and as a reaction to the growing popularity of apple computers and its OS. apple has also been running ads that was chipping away on windows brand image highligthing the problems with vista.

we love jerry's seinfeld tv show because it is about "nothing". well, this microsoft ad seem to have followed the same concept from that tv show. microsoft's seinfeld tv ad is also about nothing, only it's quite literal and we don't find it funny at all. could it be because instead of having seinfeld's 3 other friends in the tv show on the ad, we only have bill gates in it with seinfeld?

in line with the seinfeld storyline of "nothing", this is what this ad is all about - a day in the life of jerry seinfeld's walk in a mall and bill gate's purchase of a cheap pair of shoes. you know how it is, these multi-billionaires have the same lives as we do. as we cross paths with acquaintances in shopping malls, bill and jerry experience the same thing.

there is no mention of the word "w-i-n-d-o-w-s" in the tv ad, either spoken as a word or spelled as you read it here. and that makes sense. i take that to mean they recognize the fact that in our daily lives, we don't really say that word, specially when we are in a store buying for shoes. thank God for such brilliance.

i think what the ad seeks to do is to pull us in into the everyday life of bill gates as he buys cheap shoes. never mind that bill gates has enough money to buy anywhere from 217 to 2,170 shoe factories not only china but in every country in the world. you see, gates in his slightly untucked shirt is like everyone else.

somewhere in that ad is a consumer insight. with seinfeld in the ad, then bill gates himself and a $300M ad budget, we all expect this ad at minimum will have a brilliant consumer insight. bill and jerry, though in very different businesses, both built their fortunes and popularity on their uncanny skill at picking out consumer insights. i mean that in a most serious way.

seinfeld the tv show became the icon that it is because it was great in showing us who we are in our daily lives and make it incredibly funny. same thing with gates - he had the uncanny ability to extract what exactly we need in our current and future computer needs.

the consumer insight is there in this commercial. i will let you know as soon as i find it.

i wondered a lot when micrsosoft announced jerry seinfeld will appear in its commercials. we all know him from his tv show but the current audience know him from the re-runs of his shows. that is the biggest problem in choosing him for this ad project. on the other hand, jerry has great comedic timing, aside from being a great and funny writer. so i thought maybe seinfeld is not a bad choice. seinfeld's stand-up comedy revolves around ordinary, simple and everyday things that he somehow finds some great humor in them and we laugh with him when he says things like that. so, it could be a very interesting commercial.

then i saw this ad! i was giving myself the chance to accept jerry seinfeld in a microsoft commercial but i totally closed out when i saw the ad - i didn't expect that aside from seinfeld, they will actually use the storylines in the seinfeld tv show - all about nothing. what happened to interesting ads? smart ads? entertaining ads? if you have seinfeld in your ad, at minimum you expect him to be funny. but seinfeld was nowhere near funny in this ad. he was just nothing.

and why is bill gates in the ad? that's a separate discussion all together for another day.

by this time, you might be wondering already what is the point i am making in this post. WAWAM! is supposed to be about understanding tv ads, why they work and why they don't work.

and that is exactly it -- this is a post about nothing. the ad has nothing, what else can i say? wait a minute, it has something - it has ADS? Sindrome and that makes it a WAWAM!









read more posts on this microsoft and apple ads here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/i%20am%20mac%20i%20am%20pc

read posts in WAWAM! on microsoft's ad campaign here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/microsoft

read about ADS? Sindrome here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/08/wawam-launches-ano-daw-sabi-ads.html

toshiba laptop promo suffers from ADS? Sindrome!

it is obvious that the computer market in the philippines is growing. it's easy to see - an ever increasing number of brands being sold and the large increase in number of ads for computers and other related products.

one print ad is for this toshiba laptop on the left (double click image to enlarge). major retailers together with BPI credit card recently had a huge sales effort at the ayala center mall. a few of the laptop brands released print ads to generate interest, one of which is the toshiba print ad.

it's a captive market, so this toshiba print ad is actually a consumer promotion print ad. that's a very good idea. people who will go to the booths at the ayala center are already pre-disposed to buy laptops, so it's a smart idea to come up with a consumer promotion.

you do consumer promotions to attract buyers to your brand. the idea behind a promo is offer consumers something extra like a premium item or a discount on the regular price. the main idea is that a promo is a MOTIVATOR to purchase your brand and not others. the bigger the promo offer, the more attractive. a 20% discount on the price is much better than a 10% discount and definitely much better than no discount at all. same thing with prizes to be won or given away - a house and lot as promo price is definitely much better than a ballpen. the bigger the prize or discount, the more it will attract buyers to your brand.

below is an enlarged portion of the the toshiba promo print ad. now, make sure you are seated, don't want you to faint. get this - this print ad is enticing consumers to buy a toshiba laptop which based on the print ad cost P36,000.00 to P60,000.00, by offering consumers, hold your breathe....

FREE 2 MOVIE TICKETS!

wow! isn't that such an amazing consumer promo?!! it's an amazing incentive -- can you imagine, you pay P36,000 or P60,000 for a laptop and you get for FREE - 2 movie tickers which cost no more than P300.00 for two tickets! now, that's an effective discount of 0.83% or 0.5%! wow!

the headline says it all, it's a BLOCKBUSTER BARGAINS!

i don't get this ad at all! this is one hell of a Ano Daw Sabi? (ADS) Sindrome! did the toshiba brand management team actually write up a recommendation, maybe some powerpoint presentation for this brilliant consumer promotion? did they bother to do one?

if you have P36,000 or P60,000 to spend on a laptop, you can certainly buy for yourself two tickets to see a movie! how in the world did they even think this kind of consumer promo will ever in their wildest dreams entice consumers to buy toshiba laptops over others when they are offering such a puny, inconsequential and i might say most likely insulting incentive to their prospective buyers?

when thinking of a consumer promo, the first thing that a brand manager thinks about is what kind of fabulous prize can he think of to make an offer the consumer cannot refuse. the brand manager came up with 2 movie tickets!??

to add insult to injury, the ad even describes the effort as "blockbuster bargains", "absolute madness", "absolute-good-value" promotion! there are other premium items, like an ipod shuffle and a canon printer, but what drives me crazy is that they chose to highlight the 2 free movie tickets rather than the ipod and the printer. where is the logic in that?

this is a WAWAM!

bacchus current on air tvc has the "Ano Daw Sabi" (ADS) Sindrome!

just a few days ago, bacchus was featured in WAWAM! for their ad that worked really well. that commerical is an old ad and they have a new current on air.

i have seen this ad many times on tv. i have viewed this ad here a few more times. and i honestly can say this --- what is this tv ad all about? i have tried very hard to understand it, but i still don't get it.

i think the story is that this guy with the messed up hair used his mind in the pursuit of the other guy by using the elevator. he drank the bacchus while inside the elevator. his companion used his brawn by using the fire escape to climb the building and jump across two buildings. i am not sure but i think that's story there. and i got that only now in this blog after watching the ad a few times. i didn't get that story when i saw the ad on tv many times.

here is the most puzzling of all - what has the change in the voice at the end got to do with the story? what did that mean?

ano daw sabi? this ad deserves the ADS Sindrome.

WAWAM! launches the "Ano Daw Sabi" (ADS) Sindrome

you have heard of LSS (Last Song Syndrome), right?

well, today...

august 3, 2008

WAWAM! launches the

Ano Daw Sabi? Sindrome!

(ADS? Sindrome)

when an ad is unclear in what it is saying, that is the reaction you have -

Ano Daw Sabi (what did it say?)

and whenever an advertising has ADS?,

it's actually a "sin" to the client and to the business of the brand.

if an ad is unclear in what it is trying to say, or even just parts of it,

what is it's reason for being then?

it can be just 10 seconds of the ad or the whole 30 seconds,

any second that has the ADS Sindrome makes the whole ad a WAWAM!

the ADS Sindrome is a specific malady that makes the ad a WAWAM!