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:
Opendoor real estate traders
The Promotion:
The Pitch:
It’s an offerally good bear!
… No, wait, it’s a beary good offer!
Yes, that’s much better.
Sometimes, you get ads that can’t seem to hide the contempt they have for their consumers. From Miller getting passive-aggressive about people asking them to make a seltzer, to Genexa mocking any and all demographics that might desire their product, to (as seen in last week’s Ad Space) Sexy Legs pantyhose just not getting this whole marketing-to-women thing.
For all they try to wheedle and cajole and smoothtalk us into giving ’em money, occasionally they can’t help revealing just how low an opinion they have of us.
I’m getting that sort of vibe off of this ad. I get that it’s trying to be funny, but talking to adults who are trying to make a major move that’ll affect their lives for decades to come, and treating them like sulking kids who need a cute, talking teddy bear to cheer ’em up … I’m not sure how you could do that without sounding at least little condescending.
Plus, the commercial is specifically targeted at people who have already tried selling their homes, and failed. Now those are the sort of people who’d most need a service like Opendoor, but focusing so much on their failure kinda makes it sound like the Offer Bear is after chumps who are desperate to sell but aren’t good at the real estate game … which I’m sure Opendoor will in know way take advantage of.
Still, the Offer Bear sounding scammy and condescending is at least better than the way it sounds when saying “Squeeze me!” That … that sounds like someone’s barely-disguised-fetish at work.