I just saw a TV commercial for some extremely nasty looking Lipton beverage in a can. I don’t remember exactly what it was. I don’t care. What I do remember though, what is burning its way into my mind, is the liquid – in this case, the bubbles – flying out from the people in the ad. They didn’t seem bothered by it. In fact, they were floating around, seemingly propelled by the escaping effervescence. But it really bothered me.
I can’t stand that this stupid special effect of “fluids escaping from humans” has become an idea deemed worthy of being ripped off. This is my second post about this topic, but if they can keep making commercials with it, I think it’s okay to keep writing about it. The way I see it, it began a few years back with Gatorade leaking out of people’s pores. Then we had the milk flying from unfortunate, well, milk drinkers. Then Gatorade got back in the game with a more colorful version of the milk campaign. Now we have the bubbly tea excretions. I know it’s difficult to think of new ideas, but can we just stick to ads where the beverages stay inside the consumers?
Here’s the spot for Lipton Sparkling Iced Tea, in case you feel like verifying the visual first-hand. I understand that bubbles are the key selling feature – but whatever happened to appetite appeal?
It’s been out for a few weeks now, but you don’t have to worry about being late to the bandwagon. Only 6,000 people have tuned in to watch – so it’s not going viral. Because it’s terrible.
And if you really want to watch a video about tiny bubbles, let Don Ho do the talking and think about escaping to Hawaii (not having liquids escape from your pores)…
~ Adam Schnitzler, CCO, The S3 Agency
