You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
Sonos audio equipment

The Promotion:

The Pitch:
We guarantee your significant other will have exactly this reaction.

Maybe my title’s a little hyperbolic, but this ad does majorly bug me.

I get why it does what it does. It wants to get the brand name out there, make viewers inclined to buy Sonos products specifically, not just headphones and stereos in general. And the woman excitedly saying “Sonos!” isn’t that different from what a lot of ads do, having one person being ungodly enthusiastic about the product in question.

But in most commercials, those hyper-brand-loyal characters are cast in the role of evangelists, spreading the glories of the One True Brand Name to those yet to hear the good news. Their monomania towards the product isn’t meant to be a common attitude, but something that enables this person to spread the word about a genuinely useful product.

Here, though, the person with the absurd passion for Sonos is the one receiving the product. And that casts it in a different light.

This person isn’t delighted simply because they got new audio equipment for Christmas – they’re delighted specifically because it’s all Sonos brand merchandise. If those gifts had come from some other manufacturer, they wouldn’t be nearly so excited (that’s the implication anyway).

It feels like Sonos is telling people, “If you get someone headphones or speakers or whathaveyou for Christmas, they will only be satisfied if it’s from Sonos. It’s the brand name that’ll make them happy more than the product itself.” And maybe I just don’t know enough audiophiles, but that feels wildly untrue.

I know most ads are deceptive to some degree, but the way this ad tries to build such false expectations, gets me peeved.