A Feel-Good Ad for Thanksgiving

Gary North - November 28, 2019

I am a great believer in 'reasons why" advertising. It is based on benefits to the customer. It has these rules:

Lead with the benefit. Follow with the proof.
Focus on the benefits, not on the features. "Tell me about my lawn, not your grass seed."
The buyer cares about himself, not about you.
Always include an "act now" step. Provide a reason to act now.

Yet we see lots of ads that grab by playing on our emotions. This works because we are emotional creatures.

Holiday ads sometimes are emotional. The following TV ad is not a Black Friday ad. No "act now!" I had hoped to post the video here, but there was a problem. The embed code was incorrect. All I got was the code -- no ad. You will have to click through to play the ad. I recommend that you do. Click here. Then wait for it to pop up.

After you watch it, click the BACK button. You may have to click it twice. It's fussy.

The ad tells a story without a narrator. It's a nice story. It's a Hallmark-type story in 62 seconds.

TV viewers do not see the label on the ad. You do, but only because you are viewing a portfolio of the director's videos. Only at the end of the ad do TV viewers see what the ad is promoting. This is not clear from the ad itself prior to the announcement. I wonder how many viewers will figure it out as they watch the ad. Not many, I think.

In contrast is this Thanksgiving ad. Nothing subtle or heartwarming here!

But that ad was never run on TV. NBC rejected it. It's 10 years old.

We Americans much prefer heartwarming ads that don't get to the point until the very end.

And so, as a vegan by way of medical considerations, let me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. I shall eat the second half of my garlic broccoli and rice meal. I ate the first half yesterday. I really do prefer it to turkey.

If only I had a a plate full of rice dolma! Yes, I know: it's sometimes called fake dolma. For vegans married to real Armenians, it's real dolma.

And it's spelled dolma. Really.