Lexus' December To Remember With A Jingle To Forget

      I promise that eventually I will write about a commercial that I think is great! They certainly exist and they deserve to be spoken about just as much, if not more than the ones that make me tilt my head in confusion. When I say confusion I mean, the idea or concept behind the commercial or ad campaign is generally understood, but there seems to be a significant flaw in the design or focus of the overall promotion. For example, last week I wrote about how the marketing campaign for Dr. Pepper's new 'flavor' falls flat. Yet despite my dissatisfaction, I still attempted to justify their potential reasons for launching such a campaign.

      In the commercials I am talking about today, Lexus has decided to put effort into branding their 'Holiday Sale' jingle as a part of their annual holiday television commercials. (They're even pushing this jingle branding effort on radio commercials as well!) We of course are big supporters of branding, and an effective and memorable jingle certainly goes a long way towards successful branding and recognition. The problem with these Lexus commercials is the fact that in my opinion, the jingle is just not memorable enough to do them any good. It has no lyrics and ultimately just sounds like any other instrumental background of a holiday song. Even if you are able to recognize the tune as something that you have heard before, I'd  be willing to bet that an overwhelming majority of people would think of it as simply a holiday melody and nothing more. In fact, it's eerily similar to a few different well-known holiday tunes.

      Perhaps Lexus' understanding of the fact that their jingle has no obvious or distinguishable links to their product is the very reason why they are trying to bring awareness and brand recognition to their jingle. Unfortunately, the believability of the plots in these commercials seem a little too farfetched for me. All of the commercials in this series of advertisements pan out similarly to the one shown above. The focus of the storyline is that the person gifting the Lexus basically has a responsibility to reveal the gift in an extraordinary and unexpected way. So, once most or all of the gift giving has already been done, the gift giver somehow nonchalantly and creatively comes up with a way of playing this jingle so that upon hearing it, the recipient of the gift will recognize it and realize that in addition to what they have already gotten, they are now being given a Lexus as well!

      Am I the only one that sees multiple things wrong with this advertising campaign? First of all, how big of a Lexus fan or television commercial enthusiast do you have to be in order to recognize such a generic sounding jingle that only plays for about one month of the entire year? Most people don't even watch commercials anymore, let alone pay close attention to them. Can you imagine how something like that would pan out if it was attempted in real life? A woman opens up a small nicely wrapped gift to find an adorable ballerina music box inside. She takes it out, admires it and begins winding it so that she can hear the charming sound of music that emits from it as the ballerina slowly spins on the top. It plays the Lexus holiday jingle just as the man giving it had planned, but unfortunately his excitement dwindles with every second that goes by in which his lady doesn't realize that the song playing is merely a hint about her real gift. Since she didn't double over in excitement and run to the driveway like the commercial suggested she would, what do you do next? Does the guy just ask her to go out and get the paper or take out the trash so that there is still that real element of surprise?

      I like to think of the Guitar Hero commercial playing out in real life wherein the mother just rocks out on the entire song without realizing what it was, goes on to post a high score and then just drops the guitar and walks away saying, "What's up now, jerks!? You thought Mom couldn't hang with the rest of you lazy bums did you?" Meanwhile the father just sits there disappointingly shaking his head thinking, 'This didn't go at all like I had planned'.

      All that being said, if any real life scenarios had played out as described above, it would certainly not be a problem because the recipient of the Lexus is still going to be thrilled to be getting a car as a gift. Which is another thing that sort of rubs me the wrong way about these commercials. I am all about being romantic, dramatic and theatrical and I love giving gifts, but is it really necessary to go this far out of your way when you are already buying them a car!? I am totally on board with making the act of giving a more special and memorable event and the additional element of surprise can certainly make the experience even better. It's just that the idea of using the jingle as a part of the process seems so impractical for so many reasons and as far as an effective commercial is concerned, it almost takes away from the product itself. Why not focus on telling the buyer why a Lexus is the smart choice when purchasing a new vehicle? If someone is going to spend that much money on a gift, I'm sure they'll figure out an effective way to present it to the recipient. Which begs the question, is it smart to direct your marketing efforts at such a specific demographic? How many people are really buying cars as gifts for people? Especially a Lexus! I understand that just because that's too rich for my blood, doesn't mean that people don't do it. I also understand that because of the holiday season, most ad campaigns for just about anything are going to revolve around gift giving. So it's not that suggesting a brand new Lexus as a gift is what bothers me the most, it's the fact that in their effort to give their song more brand recognition, they have made it seem as if the gift of a new Lexus isn't quite complete or as impactful to the recipient unless you first wow them with the jingle that no one will ever recognize.

  Have I thought too deeply about this? Yes, yes I have.