Lacey & Alison's Blog: January 2011

This is by far one of the weirdest commercial's I've seen. It’s fairly old, the video was posted to youtube 5 years ago, and I remember it being a while ago. We've got 2 bizarre piratey rat-like things poorly singing about coupons and Quizno's. The aesthetic is cheap and crappy looking, the animation looks like it consists of magazine cutouts hinged together with brads. In the background there’s the quintessential strip mall Quizno’s. The creature’s voices are so distorted that they subtitles, which, of course, are appropriately non-sequitor. Apparently you can bring in any coupon and Quizno's will honor it. Still, weird. I guess since they are offering such an odd offer they needed to make the commercial odd as well. The target audience would appear to be anyone the obnoxiousness could pull in. Probably the tween scene. Apparently, these freaky rat demons were a big hit in Britain before they made their American premier in this commercial. That seems like a terrible choice, since there’s nothing for viewers in the states to make a connection to. There aren’t really any stereotypes included in the ad, since I the main characters draw what appears to be absolutely nothing from reality. My guess would be that this commercial is using the irritation approach, because the viewer can't make sense of it, and that's irritating, along with the irritation involved in watching these bizarre creatures try and sway me into going anywhere near somewhere they once were. Television is really the only medium an ad like this would work in, since you cant quickly navigate away from the bizarreness that is this commercial. The shoddy craftsmanship involved in it seems as though its supposed to be, endearing? Maybe? It does make the ad stand out though. I'd say that, despite its strangeness, this commercial does succeed in being memorable, though, I don't have to corporate numbers to see if it was successful in selling subs, or offering free pony rides, frankly I'm still not sure. The actual message is so bogged down in the weirdness of the commercial that I think it’s easy to miss, and that might hinder the effectiveness of the actual promotion. At first glance it could almost be a fake commercial, it’s just so random. That’s where all the appeal lies, the spot is so out of left field, you can’t help but remember it. Here it is, 5 or so years later and when told to think of a commercial, this was one that came to mind. Conversely, I don’t think this made me go to Quizno’s, bring in any of my coupons, or consider them more as my choice of lunch. If all they’re going for is brand recognition, they’ve got it, this commercial remains burned in peoples minds when they think of Quizno’s. However, it doesn’t make the subs more appealing, it even makes me a little ‘icked’ out, since creepy large mouth rodents are their main spokes-creatures. So, the Quizno’s spot comes up losing out on success slightly.
This assignment makes you take a look at the commercials we see everyday in far more depth than one would think possible. I also, never, ever, want to think about this Quizno’s commercial again. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the creators of this spot were thinking, must have been the groupthink effect or something

And in case you haven't had enough weird creature action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHsHVyumoE&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MZNEXrElw&feature=channel

My personal favorite, and most wft worthy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjatRkpSa5U