There has been a lot written in the trade press about Procter and Gamble, one of the worlds largest buyers of advertising, looking to improve their haul at creative awards shows. Quite frankly, this isn’t difficult to figure out. P&G is famous for testing- testing and committees introduce the CYA (cover your ass) factor that kills “award winning creative” instantly.
Now, while we have soldiers dying in Iraq, the idea of using Marines in an attempted comedic P&G TV spot for “Tide to go,” a stain removal pen is an insult to the military and to those who have sons and daughters overseas.
The spot goes something like this:
A Don Rickles type drill Sergeant is yelling at a line of five “Marines” and one has a red stain (metaphorical blood?) on his shirt- one Marine slips the other the pen- he eliminates the stain- which seems to confuse the DI- and the spot finishes with the DI yelling at the camera- in a pleading voice, for you to go to tidetogo.com to win a trip to the Martha Stewart Apprentice finale.
What is P&G thinking? The days of “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” went away a long time ago.
As our young men and women are dying in Iraq, tying something as inane as a spot remover to people who are about to risk their life for their country, seems about as stupid as tying your product to a convicted felon (I don’t care if she has her own tv show). How this helps to engender trust and lust for this product, I don’t know. All it does is disturb me. Maybe it’s because I spent time in the military, maybe it’s because I believe that advertising should be interesting, stimulating, entertaining, intelligent. This is not.
It’s certainly not a “big idea” or an “award winner.”
As to the concept in general- it has no chance of having any kind of legs- this DI isn’t “Mr. Whipple” and even if he was, “Mr. Whipple’s “ day’s are long gone.
If P&G was smart, they’d pull this stain of an ad faster than their stain remover appears to work.
What do you think?
[note- update 20 Aug 08] The spot I saw is not available on YouTube- but a newer one is- where they identify the stain as catsup and eliminate the pleading at the end:
Maybe the metaphorical blood on the Marine’s shirt is “Have a Happy Period” blood?
Get a grip. It *is* a funny commercial and it doesn’t denegrate anybody. Those of us who have been through boot or basic might find humor in a TI outside his “comfort zone”.
This commercial won an award at the Cannes Lions International advertising festival, so it is an award winner.
The Cannes judges aren’t always known for their good taste. One year a fly landing on a guys butt won as a commercial for toilet paper.
I haven’t seen this spot mentioned on the Cannes win list- will have to check.
It didn’t win a lion, but was shortlisted.
I agree with Lee (#2). Get a grip. I am prior service and found this commercial very funny. Some of the best sarcasm I’ve ever heard was in basic training. I liked the commercial so much I DVR’d it. I’ve never done that before…..
i sawq it the other day thsat guy rocks david is idiot
I love this commercial, mainly because of the body language of the drill instructor. Its amusing. I remember the product. You are reading way too much into this.
Funny Thing is My Friend is the DI in this commercial. He is a proud Master Sergeant with over 20 years of service to this fine nation. Get a gripp guy!!!! The stain was not “Blood” it was simply a stain. The commercial demonstrated that the pen can get anyone out of a jamm in a hurry with its stain removing properties…..period. I think people like yourself simply love having your glass “Half Empty”. You stated you served. I bet you remember how your drill instructor acted. I bet he acted a little like this DI huh? Take the slapstick humor for it was. By you taking the time to trying to get analytical over this simple commercial simply proves the advertisers did thier job. Even bad press is good press.
Respectfully,
Master Sergeant Jesse M. Duran
US Army
@MSG Duran,
My Drill Sgt. would never plead or ask me to go to Martha Stewart’s site.
His name was SFC John Cloud. Class act all the way.
I guess I don’t find it funny when we mock the uniform or the people who serve.
Later executions- like the talking stain in the job interview were much better.
To back up my original position- the Drill Sgt spot has 135K views-
the Talking Stain spot has 4x more views- with a lot more likes.