Lately, I've had a bit more time on my hands which is allowing me to view television commercials more organically instead of hearing about the good (or bad) ones from AdAge.com and AdRants.com.
Now, there is one I can't get enough of. Seriously. If the TV is on and I hear the music I will rush over so I can watch it.
The Vancouver- based company Plentyoffish.com is the largest free dating website. In the past couple days it has gotten a lot of backlash because the founder admitted the website had been hacked into and tons of its user names and passwords were stolen. Even before this, I read a lot of user-reviews on how their customer service was lacking and they couldn't contact the company with issues the users were having and the concern for their privacy. Ha.
I understand that no matter how well done your advertising is, it won't make up for a bad product. So, if you are on the hunt for a dating website- I'd spend a little money and checkout match.com or eHarmony. However, in the name of advertising, I love plentyoffish.com's two television spots. Click to view: "Find Your Other Half" and "Your Other Half is Waiting".
The direction is beautiful. Everything from the scenarios chosen to the lighting- it works perfectly. There is virtually no copy in these ads until the very end so the visuals have to work for themselves. The whole commercial is tied together by the string of copy "Find Your Other Half" and "Your Other Half is Waiting" respective to the spot shown. Both of the spots are so similar to each other with many of the same shots but, then very different. A split screen combination of a man and woman "facing" each other going about their day- similar, but different.
At the beginning of this post I said the music always catches my attention. The song featured on both spots is "After All That, It's Come to This" by the up and coming Australian band Amos the Transparent. I liked this so much, after seeing these spots a few times, I had to Google the song and then I ended up buying the entire album off iTunes instantly. Music in advertisements can be indifferent to the spot or they can make or break an ad. In my opinion, these spots are visually fantastic enough that there are a few other songs that could replace this one and they would still be great. This song, however, really seals the deal for me. The selection of the song is perfect where the visuals blend with the lyrics effortlessly.
I wish I could give a shout-out to the smart people out there that created my new favorite commercials that I can't get enough of but, I can't figure out who did them. I'm pretty good on the Googles, but this one is a mystery to me. Whoever you are, great job. I'm in love.
