Spots of the Decade: Honorable Mention

I wish I could list the best political spots of the decade, but I'm not sure I could come up with the list. So I I'm opting for best ads of the decade, starting with my honorable mention choice.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwrYiNJc_E&feature=player_embedded#]

I love this spot, it's so well executed, and it sums up the genre of dot com spots that dominated advertising in the early part of the decade.  I still laugh out loud watching it, its very clever and memorable.  Well, kind of memorable, see I remember the ad, but I can never, for the life of me, remember who it's for. I remember what they do is like herding cats (great metaphor), but not sure what it is they actually do.

See that's the problem with this ad, and the other ads of this genre.  They're spitting on the table memorable, but there message is lost in the humor and cleverness.  I'm reading an interesting book (only about 25% through), "Personality Not Included," which argues for the importance of personality in marketing.  One of the key issues with personality is that it needs to be authentic.

This ad, and the genre is represents, are funny, clever, memorable, but they fail ultimately because they don't connect any of those qualities to the company they represent.  Is the company funny and clever?  What is the personality of the company?  The Apple ads work because they connect to the core of what Apple is -- hip, clever, outside the box, marching to the beat of their own drummer.

Its' not enough to be all those things if it doesn't connect to a message, a core value, a core principle something real and authentic that people can identify with your brand.