The Pretty AE was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday so I offered to bring by some food and she took me right up on the offer. I was over the moon about this…until I got to her place and realized that she had taken a few people up on the offer and this was not quite the one-on-one time that I had been hoping for, though it was still fun.
We turned on American Gladiators, as you would turn on any re-make of a classic that now features Hulk Hogan as host.
The show was surprisingly interesting (though we will see if the interest lasts past the novelty) and we were all getting into it.
And then the new Applebee’s spot with the Apple that shows off his “crib” by McCann Erickson came on…and there was silence.
For a good minute.
Until someone said “…whaaaat?”
Inspired to write a scathing review of the shockingly bad spot, I went to YouTube to find it and it got even worse. They had actually created a video of the “spokesperson casting” that showed different apples “trying out” for the part:
Not only are they making bad ads, but they fell for the idea that you could put a random video on YouTube, not build awareness for it, not give consumers a reason to go, etc and so on. I am sure that the marketing department, assured by folks at McCann, expected it to succeed.
It’s been up for three months and has, as of this post, garnered a measly 2,981 views.
Further proof that videos don’t just become viral if you wish them to be, that advertising is harder than it looks and that Applebee’s made the wrong choice when they went with McCann.
