In my mind, a crappy commercial that has horrible production values is wholly superior to the well-produced, high budget commercial that still sucks. When a bad commercial looks bad and seems rushed and doesn't make sense, it's at least partly because of circumstance. Local commercials often fall into this trap... a lack of money leads to a lack of resources making the ad, and BAM! It's a suckfest.
But when a national commercial comes on, and it's well done, well directed, looks great and somehow manages to be full of poor decisions, it's a complete failure. The Honey Bunches of Oats' (herein abbreviated "HoBO") "Sunshine Day" ad is one of these ads.
Look at the resources that went into making this steaming pile of maggot buffet. There's a whole cast of dancing actors! Candy colored sets! A licensed (awful) song! This little film is the dedicated result of a whole lot of work by a whole lot of people, and it's terrible. And that makes me so mad.
The concept behind the ad is suspect from the start... something about the community of folks who enjoy HoBO having a sunnier, more positive outlook than the rest of us downtrodden Frosted Flakes lovers, and how they realize that the most important meal of the day can also be the most fun. Sure. I love the idea of some ad dude pitching this asinine idea to the HoBO execs. "What makes HoBO different from all other flake based cereals? Optimism!" SOLD.
Two of the decisions in filming totally stymy me... first, the second actor featured is obviously a horrifying, suburban serial killer sociopath. Look at his dead eyes and his ridiculously frightening grin. Some casting director PICKED that freak to be the face of HoBO. Second: the choir of triplets. That scene had to be story boarded and designed explicitly. "I feel like something's missing from this grating, sugar coated nightmare... I know! Identical triplets!"
But even if you remove ugly Ted Bundy and the Sisters Three, the commercial still presents a grotesque funhouse version of what ad execs consider "happiness." It's over the top, but not in a knowing way or a funny way... more like in a desperate way. Licensing a campy song, like this molding owl pellet from the Brady Bunch and playing it mostly straight seems like a willful act of obliviousness regarding our extremely cynical, extremely ironic culture. It's not sincere enough to be sweet or winking enough to be good... it's trapped somewhere in between. And when you tally up the hours that went into making this suburban freakshow, it's both depressing and enraging.
OK, it may be a bit of overkill but it did achieve the primary purpose of marketing. It got the attention of the viewing public. Case in point, you have posted it on your site and are publicly commenting about it. Because your post is strictly about the quality of the advertising and not the product in question, this serves the advertising purpose.
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