This has been bugging me ever since I first saw this. I figured maybe blogging about it would be cathartic.
Watch:
First off, let me say that I think this is an awesome program and I don’t mean to disparage it or the recipients of its services in any way. That said…listen again to what the woman at about 0:14 says:
You don’t know how very basic essentials are until you have none.
Huh? That sentence makes absolutely no sense. It sounds like it should. I understand what she means. But what she said makes no sense. I think maybe she meant:
You don’t know how essential the basics are until you have none.
That would make sense.
Now I don’t fault the woman. In an ad hoc interview, I’m sure I’ve said all kinds of stuff that didn’t entirely make sense. But what I’m wondering is who at Tide (or their ad agency) let this get through. I can’t imagine that out of the hundreds of people they’ve provided this service to, that was the best quote.
If you’re in the business of communicating, you need some quality control. The amount is proportional to the amount of exposure/risk you have. A freelancer lifestreaming to Twitter? Not a big deal. A national PR campaign across multiple media? A big deal.
Maybe I’m being a grammar nazi. But you know what? If you’re a multi-national corporation, or an ad agency who works for them, you should have a grammar nazi on staff who reviews everything – twice — before it goes out.
Damn, that’s a good catch, man…
I personally had a problem with this one when it came out, not because of the program, but because they made a TV commercial out of a social campaign. Look, it’s ok to issue a press release so the local news picks up on this, but you don’t record it and then broadcast it around for people to see.
“Hey look, we care about people!”
Wow, Tide is an attention whore… awesome…
Jeff @ DeadTreeMedia.com
What bothers me is that these people are all running to this giant truck with loads and loads of clothes – yet the truck is taken to areas hit by disasters….meaning these people have NOTHING….so where are they getting the clothes that they are washing. And seriously??? Clean clothes would be the LAST thing that would comfort me if a tornado, flood, or hurricane took my home from me.
Very good catch, and even better, I kinda liked the t-shirt, so I’ll be donating. Perhaps they were hoping someone would pick up on the sentence to do exactly what you’re doing now…. ahhhh viral marketing.
You know…I think you’re missing the point with this…yes the grammar (soundbite) is lacking. I agree that they should definitely screen their testimonials better. As for the ad…Tide is donating a portion of their profits from yello cap and t-shirt sales to disaster relief…if you simply looked on their website you’d see that this is what they’re promoting with the commercial…didn’t see anything wrong with it, or them being attention whores at all…
Personally, I don’t expect “true” charity from a corporation, so I don’t have a problem with “enlightened self-interest”. That’s the source of a lot of good in the world that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
One person’s “attention whoring” is another person’s “raising awareness”.
This one bothered me for a different reason. I think Tide is doing a great thing but why do I have to buy only one special type of Tide if I want Tide to donate to the program. Why only one specific type? Wasn’t it selling? Wasn’t it moving off the shelves fast enough? Personally, I think a portion of each Tide brand should go to their charity. If you’re going to do it then do it right.
This has been driving me insane for months. I finally had to find out if anyone else was bugged by it.
The accidental genius of the whole thing is that if you don’t think about it, it sounds perfectly sensible. It flows along smoothly and adds a hint of drama.
I am so glad others have noticed this.
Dude, if you think the commercial was bad, imagine people that not only don’t get it but they repeat it and agree with it. Take a gander at this (did I justt say gander?):
squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=49364
Scott (by the way, my name is Scott as well),
I read your post over at SquidU. I wanted to see if anyone responded to me there only to find they had removed my post. Probably for not speaking too keenly about the comments above my own. I was glad to see your post made the cut. I’m not normally insulting but sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. I can understand missing it on the commercial but repeating it, in type and then agreeing with it seems to indicate someone is a bit challenged.
This has bugged me for the very same reason since the first time I saw this commercial. Not faulting anyone, just something that I noticed she said backwards.