If the new Healthy Hometown Kentucky ad promoting breastfeeding doesn’t put you off talking babies, nothing will. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but people please, let’s all work together to see if we can come up with an original idea.
I’ve never been a fan of E*Trade’s talking baby. I realize that I’m in the minority since the baby has been “stocking up” so to speak since 2001. Fortunately, Quiznos’ Baby Bob (circa 2005) only lasted about a year before he was retired.
Not to be deterred by a lack of creativity, advertisers have continued to beat this idea into the ground. Nationally we’ve endured Just For Men, Babies.com and Evian (although to be fair, Evian’s roller babies don’t talk).
You may have been exposed to a version of this ad for Hawk Ford on your hometown airwaves. But if you are fortunate enough not to live in Smithfield, Tennessee you haven’t had your head explode by watching this ad.
“Boy howdy Martha, ain’t that kid cute, just like that baby talkin bout stocks!” Well actually your kid isn’t cute, the production values suck, and if your ad reminds people about another product or service you are most likely dumping your money down a rat hole.
Granted, it takes more time to figure out something powerful to say about your business. But it can be done because cute is a poor substitute for substance, cute done poorly is a train wreck and breastfeeding a baby with all those teeth is downright creepy.
