Now, I often get angry at commercials for one reason or another. Seldom does one disgust me as a consumer, as a (former) marketing professional, and as a human being all at once, as this one does. The one bright spot for me is the comments left by the YouTube viewers. They sum up my feelings on all three levels. Update: Wait! I'm actually enraged on four levels. See below.
As a consumer:
middlefinger22 -- "do you need to pay for the cameraa ?? and headset"
BarricadeSlade -- "What? You mean they're not built into the computer? Wtf? You'd think that after 3 mabye 4 years they'd a caught up with Apple..."
As a marketing professional:
chrisslinkard -- "The father is so very ugly. For a company selling a product where you can connect face-to-face with people over the internet, they should fire the person who cast this guy in their commercial. If the people who use oovoo look like that, I will run from their product, not walk."
grbradsk -- "I don't care about the guy's looks, the commercial is just grating anyhow. There's the presentation background chatter which at first I though was the product and then there's the stupidity: No way I'm signing up for something that can nag me and pop up during a business presentation."
Chrisslinkard makes an excellent point; that guy seriously needs a hat or something.
Finally, as a human being:
wereallcelebsnow -- "This commercial is despicable on so many levels, not the least of which is the way it encourages instilling values of greed and capitalism at a very young age. She doesn't call to tell him that she's thinking about and misses him (which would be utterly unacceptable and shunned upon at a business meeting), but instead to remind him he'd better do really well at this meeting and "make some money!" so her and her family can live in unneccesary indulgences such as video conferencing."
and further
"What's even more perverse about this is how everyone 'awws' at this comment, as if it's not highly inappropriate, especially coming from a child. Infact it's passed off as merely a cutesy "kids say the darndest things" moment. The sad, even deeper implication is that that's about as much human interaction and communication a business tycoon father and his daughter can ever expect to have. And everyone has a good laugh.
...Then the world explodes."
Update: I forgot how it bothers me as a parent! For one, why is a child videoconferencing ANYONE without adult supervision? Two, her behavior is deplorable, not adorable -- thanks for teaching her she's the center of the universe, clueless overly permissive parents who can't set and maintain boundaries for their child. There, I think that's it.
In conclusion, worst... ad... ever. Well, there are some erectile dysfunction ones that give it a run for the money...
