Tuesday 5/18

Demonstration

Do you ever fall asleep on the couch with the TV on and suddenly get woken up by a screaming infomercial?  Sure you do.  Pay no attention and if you don’t turn it off quickly, you’ll get sucked in!  (And most likely fall back asleep on the couch.)  Why are they so catchy?  Probably because they’re chock full of demonstrations and testimonials.  Well, let’s just assume that most of the testimonials are rehearsed.  That leaves us with demonstrations. 

Demonstrations are great!  Without product demonstrations, we would have no state fair.  (and with no state fair, no state fair corn dogs.  What a travesty!)  We consumers love to see and feel things before they buy them.  We love to see how things work.  Infomercials do a great job of that and just about everything else except letting you touch the product.  The problem is: no one likes them and rarely do people go out of their way to watch them.  At least we don’t admit to it. 

Big companies know that demonstrations are still great tools, so they try to work them into the short commercials you see on regular TV.  It’s marginally convincing.  There are only so many ways you can instantly prove one paper towel can pick up more spilled spaghetti sauce than another.  This tissue holds your sneeze better than this one!  This shampoo makes you hair look more like this celebrity than that one!  It’s endless.  You have to draw the line somewhere.

So I’ve seen this Pampers commercial several times now which demonstrates, well, absolutely nothing.  It shows some babies crawling and laughing and then two computer-generated diapers get computer-generated simulation baby pee on them.  Then, two computer-generated volley balls bounce in the diapers and then roll back to show how the inferior diaper lets more simulated baby pee on its demonstration ball.  WHAT THE HECK?!  NONE OF IT IS EVEN REAL!  The whole demo was digital!  If you know what commercial I’m talking about, look closer next time.  What’s the point of giving a demonstration if it’s completely fabricated? 

It’s really quite funny because I’m sure some schmuck out there seriously thought, “Ooh, that Pampers diaper does hold more pee!  Would ya look at that!”   Come on, Big-Multi-National-Company, we’re not that stupid! . . . yet!

By: S. Cole Garrett