Publicity on TV - we love and hate it

Discussion Open Forum
1

I was paying more attention lately on the TV add’s.

As much I like the VW TSI clip (with the frog lifted by the catched fly),
as much I hate the 007 inspired Whiskey add for Prime Blue, using that poor Caucasian guy dropping from the sky… Who in gods name sells his soul and honor for such a low-life brand.
Even Washing powder adds in Europe are more fascinating :noway:
Not to mention the mobile companies, Taiwan beer , Matisse, Xinyi real estate and many many others.

I know that Taiwan will never make it in World’s most famous TV add’s but why is the level so ultimate LOW here?
Is it I not understanding the culture again, or are Taiwanese viewers simply digesting everything they are served?

2

I always find the Japanese commericals to be of high caliber.

Perhaps, Taiwan just doesn’t ‘encourage’ creative thinking. Perhaps their audience tastes aren’t that creative. :idunno:

But I don’t find American commericals to be all that spiffy themselves either.

3

What do you expect from a place where news shows add tacky comic characters, sound effects and as much colorful graphics as possible?

4

ANy one else offended by the commercial with the blind chick?

5

Oh, that commercial really sucks! And I can’t even find any trace of that brand on Google. I’m assuming it’s a low-end locally made poison.

6

As I understand it, the accepted way here is to treat your audience (in this case, your market) as total idiots.

Meanwhile, all advertising is just assumed to be a pack of lies by everyone who sees it. Which somehow fails to factor into their purchasing decisions - they assume everyone is lying to them, so they go with whoever is spending the most money on doing so.

7

Which one is that?

8

Which one is that?[/quote]

I guess the one from another real estate agency. Is it ?
The blind girl has a Labrador dog and the dog seems to make a choice of living for the girl…
i am not offended , as I simply do not understand the reasoning behind… Might I am missing something here?

9

i have such a chuckle evertime I see that retirement savings one… where the guy says to his wife: “wo you yi ge surprise gei ni” and he whips out a picture of the new yacht he bought… then the wife turns to him and says: “wo yeh you yi ge surprise gei ni” and she whips out a picture of an ultrasound… camera flashes to a screaming kid who stomps on and crushes a toy yacht. :laughing: heh heh

10

i can’t believe there are people out there that still watch commercials, teehee.

11

You simply can’t escape them, they are EVERYWHERE :astonished:

Yesterday , I saw the Taiwan Beer commercial futuring Forumosa and I feel troubled.
They mention in the commercial “Waiguoren”.
I have no problem if Taiwan beer refers to these fine foreigners filmed, but I would have a problem with a possible 'All foreigners on, or who know Forumosa like Taiwan Beer".
I do not want to be used being a member of this community for a beer brand or other commercial.

Anyone got a clue what was the rational text within this commercial?

12

If they are using us (I hate Taiwan beer) maybe they should pay the hosting?

13

Which one is that?[/quote]

I guess the one from another real estate agency. Is it ?
The blind girl has a Labrador dog and the dog seems to make a choice of living for the girl…
i am not offended , as I simply do not understand the reasoning behind… Might I am missing something here?[/quote]

well she comes in and everyone stops what they are doing and stares at her. Then one “brave” man slowly gets up to help her after they all sit there and stare at her for a minute. Then he does exactly what the hell he is supposed to be doing but it is supposedly special that he does his frikkin job because he helped the cripple.
That’s the feeling I got from it. “See, we are such a good realtor we even help cripples.”

note that the use of the word cripple is an explantion of the attitude I see.

Well I think that MaoMan intended that to increase traffic, so no. Mutual benifits.

14

[quote=“ceevee369”]I know that Taiwan will never make it in World’s most famous TV add’s but why is the level so ultimate LOW here?
Is it I not understanding the culture again, or are Taiwanese viewers simply digesting everything they are served?[/quote]

I think regulation may have something to do with it. If you’re not allowed to explicitly say, “use this products and the chicks will fall all over you”, you have to be a bit cleverer. I think what you can and can’t say is more tightly regulated in the UK than the US, and there have certainly been some classic, memorable ongoing ad campaigns. Alcohol and cigarette ads were always the most sophisticated ads in the UK because they were even more restricted. Think Guinness ads.

15

what I find offensive is that those government pay rolled “public service announcement” ads on TV that are supposed to educate the greater public on serious social issues like safety seats for kids in cars, reckless driving, polluting the environment, not littering, taking care of animals, spitting binlang etc. etc. are all 2 bit low budget “cute animal” cartoons abysmally 2 frame flash animated with screeching voice overs by some woman talking like a baby, the entire pantomime like affair seemingly aimed exclusively at 5 year olds, as if Taiwan’s multifarious societal woes are best addressed by appealing to pre schoolers…

dealing with serious issues requires a serious approach… they could learn this by watching similar ads from Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, almost anywhere they care to look… but no, it’s all feel good cutesy cartoons, seemingly aimed at toddlers, when what they really need is something like this… ruiner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/howclose.mpg

16

Yes I was bewildered by those ads too, plasmatron

The road safety ads back in Australia were harrowing, dramatic and pulled no punches…

WARNING : These ads are shown on prime time TV but are very harrowing.

youtube.com/watch?v=7_WFiDNuDco This is a compilation of the ads all edited into one 4 minute video.

I wonder if this kind of advertising would work here? God knows it is needed…!

17

the message i got was more, “we won’t take advantage of you like those other realtors.” i thought it was banal, and probably less than truthful, but i didn’t find it offensive.

i like the one where the bald insanely grinning foreigner’s head keeps popping up, for some kind of medicine.

18

[quote="SuchAFobwell she comes in and everyone stops what they are doing and stares at her. Then one “brave” man slowly gets up to help her after they all sit there and stare at her for a minute. Then he does exactly what the hell he is supposed to be doing but it is supposedly special that he does his frikkin job because he helped the cripple.
That’s the feeling I got from it. “See, we are such a good realtor we even help cripples.”[/quote]

mmm… then the "WI-TA-LY (Vitaly drink) commercial should offend some of us also, using this traditional dressed black guy unable to pronounce the “V” and the local guy giving him a look like “from what planet are you coming from”.
This thought comes from the fact my GF says that a lot of Taiwanese see black persons lower than themselves.
Sad but true? So was that VITALY add made from that perspective? Hopefully not!

19

the irony of that Vitaly drink advert is that in real life the guy from Ghana acting in it has some kind of PhD in Chinese literature and poetry (read about him before somewhere, I forget where) and reads, writes and speaks flawless Mandarin, his critiques of classical Chinese literature are published in various Chinese and Western academic journals and he is fluent in Taiwanese as well, all in all a highly intelligent, talented guy, which is more that you can say for the local oaf supposedly teaching the “ignorant african” how to pronounce a simple word… :raspberry:

20

considering they were both willing actors in the advertisement, i can’t see how you make that distinction between the two. for all you know the taiwanese guy is a phd too.