Please forward me to your cool friends now.
Wendy’s made a viral video. Which is another way of saying Wendy’s tried to do a viral video and ended up just making a tv spot minus the logo.
The idea itself is really funny. Kudos to the simplicity and genuine goofiness of it. But the execution feels heavy-handed, scripted to seem unscripted. Maybe it’s just the talent, who are trying really hard to be casual. It’s obviously an ad, and nothing is worse than an ad that’s trying not to be an ad but is still obviously an ad.
Consider Coffee Bean’s Mascot Roommate which, a few years back, was funny enough and believable enough to be featured, straight-faced, on CNN.
Consider also, recent viral efforts of Colle+McVoy. They take a different approach, not trying to fool you into thinking what you’re watching is user-generated. Instead, they just do really cool, really smart things. You know it’s from an advertiser, and you don’t care. That’s an amazing accomplishment.
The question is, would you pass the Wendy’s thing on to a friend? Maybe. To us, it just seems like a tv spot on YouTube, and chances are we’re not going to throw that into a friend’s inbox.
Courtesy of Ad Age. And apologies for posting two snarky ad fails in a row. Won’t happen again.
What do you mean “scripted”? Didn’t you hear them say “uh”? How can you script that? And what about how many times they said “man”?
I’d say it’s definitely the talent. Try watching it without sound. It works a lot better. Sadly, it will also make you notice that even that one hand gesture seems completely unnatural.
“nothing is worse than an ad that’s trying not to be an ad but is still obviously an ad.”
Well said.