WIDE ANGLE SHOT of a small group of alternative teenage boys and girls hanging out watching their friends skateboard. Some are sitting on hoods of cars (think: Fast and the Furious) others are dancing to music provided from "beat box". BG sounds: RAP MUSIC. There are O.S. sounds: CHEERING, SPEAKING, SKATEBOARD SOUNDS.
Alternative Teenage Boy #1
Whack skateboardin' jam bro!
Alternative Teenage Boy #2
(raspy voice)
Word.
Alternative Teenage Boy #2 grimaces and clenches his throat. Alternative
Teenage Boy #1 notices and responds accordingly.
Alternative Teenage Boy #1
What's the 411 dude?
Alternative Teenage Boy #2
My throat has been illin' me all week yo. I've had to take a relaxed attitude
towards work because of it.
Alternative Teenage Boy #1
Bogus. You know what you need to do to that sore throat?
Alternative Teenage Boy #2
Hit me.
ZOOM IN
Alternative Teenage Boy #1
Diss it with new Halls Cough Drops!
CUT TO product shot
V.O.
New improved Halls Cough Drops contain two active ingredients- one that
coats and soothes sore throats and another that relieves throat pains.
Alternative Teenage Boy #2
Bam! That shiznit works
Alternative Teenage Boy #1
Consider your sore throat…
Alternative Teenage Boy #1 and #2
(in unison)
…DISSED!
LOGO and FADE TO BLACK
Welcome to advertising targeted to young adults. Those marketing campaigns that relentlessly try to "connect" with the young demographic but ultimately fail because they blatantly know nothing about their target audience. Those advertisements that position themselves as having their "finger on the pulse" though they obviously don't have their finger, hand, or any body part near the perceptible sentiments of young people. Don't these marketing gurus realize that these half assed attempts to associate with teen "interests and passions" only makes them appear MORE out of touch?
Take McDonalds new television spot promoting their "Chicken Strips". Basically the ad involves some hip hop wanna-be clone (because them kids love that hip hop) dancing with some cheesy rave-like background effects while singing some dreck that includes the line "I gotta get my strip on". Or do you remember the McCain's advertisement for their curly french fries. Which involved among other things, some surfer spaz screaming "McCains…what have you TOTALLY done to our fries?" These and many others (like that current "Pogo Stick- hot dog on a stick" monstrosity) are all so off the mark that they are comical and seem like Saturday Night Live spoof commercials.
The majority of these off target young adult focused ads are so transparently concocted by some 45 year old suits who have no idea about this segment. They are basing all decisions off some research they pulled that says teens like urban music and video games. The large portion of people making top level marketing decisions have literally no insight into the audiences they want to speak too. What they should realize though is if you try to be something you are not it comes across very obvious and ultimately will hurt your image more. These thinly veiled young audience targeted ads created by people who don't relate to the young audience will eventually hurt your credibility more with the target group you are trying to speak too. To connect properly with a culture you have to know the culture…and more then just their favourite music category. The easiest solution here is to get a spokesperson. At least Pepsi had the smarts to hire Britney Spears instead of doing ads with young girls running around shopping and talking about boys. Now that would have been…whack.
…but that's just my opinion.
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