chase this advertising away (please)

Oh my.

Despite the fact I just saw this commercial after some research I now know other people’s eyes have been forever scarred by the Chase Freedom card advertising called The ‘Footloose’ Commercial.

This is brutal.

Absolutely frickin’ brutal.

Footloose cash back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azB-n0vqFLM

Even in my wildest imagination I cannot envision how anyone in any meeting has ever thought this was good advertising.

I say that and on this site I have posed some fairly wild and absurd business scenarios <albeit typically rooted in a real business experience … just to show how absurd business meetings & decisions can be> but even I cannot build a mythical scenario in which a group of grown men & women would think this was not only a good idea … but showcases my product in a positive credible way.

I even struggle to envision how Kenny Loggins, who has admittedly penned some fairly horrible songs to meet some movie requests, would ever agree to have his song bastardized to this extent <living proof that money can make some people do some fairly wacky things>.

The ad?

I see the briefing session with the creative people.

– We need to show the many ways you can get money back <all in one commercial>.

– We need to show that using our card is associated with fun <not actually spending money>.

– We need to show that the people who use our card are cool <in some retro way because apparently research shows that they all have Footloose VHS tapes in their entertainment center that they watch every time they come home after a party as a reminder of the ‘good times’>.

– We need to show that we are not a retro brand <so we can’t use the original song … it has to be relevant to the new young cool audience we know are dying to use our card>.

– <basically> We need to show everyone uses our card.

– We need to show that their world is better by using our card <in the actual brief that would come out with something like this … “in a black & white world where people are constantly just trying to get thru their to-do list the Freedom Card provides a glimpse of a more colorful world”>.

Oh.

– We need to show some consistency commercial to commercial so can you come up with some device I can use over and over again <so I can bludgeon people with it because the ads themselves will be unmemorable and I need to have something they will remember>.

<cut to a picture of a client sitting in the back of the room with a huge smile on their face doodling … “now this is why I got in the business … and … I wonder what cool hotel we will stay at in LA when we shoot this>

How do they do it?

Their spokesperson, Ben Grant, magically appears in everyday black & white situations with the signature blue color of Chase … oh … but not just the color but in a blue guitar <and, of course, the card is blue so you do not miss seeing it in that black & white world of ours> … and he is singing Footloose … oops … no, not Footloose, just the music and he has his own lyrics?

Now that, my friends, is just a very very <very> bad idea. Memorable? Sure. But not everything memorable is good <please refer to your high school year book picture>.

Oh.

But they have gobs of money to spend so it really doesn’t matter <and they are using their card so they get cash back I assume>.