A Bridge too far....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTZMTTcvTm8 Wow that's a lot of production values for a political ad.  I love the pledge zombies concept, too bad the creators of the ad seem to not know what to do with it. There's this big build up, then you have what's a pretty standard political ad. Seems like there are two ads in here, a concept spot about "Pledge Zombies" and a standard to camera ad about the Pledge and why it's bad for business.

The concept ad could be hilarious, imagine a standard political ad with the pledge zombie, meeting voters, working at their desk, with their family.  (I can see it in my head, it's pretty funny there at least.) In this ad, it feels like it's wasted, there's no payoff to the concept, so why go through all that work?

The failure of this ad isn't from a lack of creativity or execution, both are very good, but a lack of courage on the part of the consultants (or the candidate) to follow through with a brilliant concept. They came up with something interesting, and instead of playing it, trusting the concept to deliver the message, they go half way, so the ad is neither a good concept ad or a good political ad. (Ok, it's actually a pretty good political ad, that was a little harsh, it's just aspires to be something more, and it fails in that aspect.)

I remember reading a book when I was younger, "A Bridge too Far," by Cornelius Ryan. It a historical account of the the audacious allied plan to end the war, by capturing a series of five bridges behind enemy lines and  opening up a northern route into Germany.  Despite all sorts of problems, the Allies captured four of the five bridges, prompting General Montgomery to proclaim it a success, and others to say, they went "a bridge too far."

This ad is like Operation Market Garden (the name of the plan in the book), four of five bridges isn't actually a success, judged by the standards it has set up, it's a failure, which is too bad because it's so close to being awesome.