Do Superlatives work on you any more?

[Teflon Billy]

Heh..."Extreme"

I mean, the day they started trying to imply that, like, Yo-Yo's, Snickers and Sprite made you some kind of Dangerous, Sexy Lunatic was the day the term just went south for me.

And yes, Extreme Explorer was a retarded Class name.

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Heh,

I work in Marketing so these wash past me like so much dust in the wind. In fact, if I see a commercial for a movie where their telling me what the critics are saying before the movie is in theatres all I hear is "this movie sucks but we'd really like you to see it anyways".

The problem is that most advertising is done by advertising companies and not by the product's own company. So what happens is the Ad firms are more interested is selling their work to the their client than to the audience. And simply it's easy to sell a client when you're telling them how wonderful their product is. When somebody eventually does something different all the other companies immediately copy it because their clients are saying "we'd like something like this."

One of the strangest experiences I've ever had was sitting in a meeting with an agency while my boss was saying "tell us what you can do for us" and the agency talking-head replying "tell us what you'd like us to do for you." My reply, muttered under my breath, was "if we knew that we'd do it our bloody selves."

It's very rare these days that I see an ad that really hits me. And when it does happen it's amazing. As an example my personal vote for best campaign of all time was for the first Tim Burton Batman movie. It was just the bat symbol with the date, that was it. You saw it and you knew exactly what it was and just couldn't wait to see it. Bloody brilliant.

Jack

 

[Hypersmurf]

Superlatives are the absolute worst thing ever!

-Hyp.

 

[wingsandsword]

After hundreds of "best movie of the year", dozens of "products which will revolutionize the industry" in computing, dozens of "indispensible and invaluable" roleplaying books, I think it's safe to say I have gained some kind of saving-throw bonus vs. Marketing, and I'm probably not the only one.

Why do you think "viral marketing" and in-movie product placement are so big now? Just splashing up a big sign or magazine ad saying what a wonderful product doesn't go very far, and big claims don't go very far either.

For RPG books, I make my own decision after browsing at my FLGS, although my initial interest is often stoked by previews online. An interesting excerpt is a lot more meaningful than any amount of cover-blurb.

For movies, I just assume all comedies have a few funny moments we see in the trailers, and the rest is vaguely amusing, and that all action movies have a few big scenes we see in the trailers, and some stuff that strings those scenes along (and maybe a few smaller scenes that didn't get covered). Unless it's a movie I'm already interested in, I won't go see it unless I hear from friends that's it's good or a reviewer I trust (in that I've already agreed with them many times before and we have similar tastes) likes it. Even then, I'm not too likely to go see a movie in the theaters (last movie I saw on the big screen was Episode III), I'd rather pay $20 to buy a DVD rather than pay $10 to watch it once.

 

[arscott]

Not often. I have hype resistance 25!

Does that negate the first 25 points of hype-related damage per ad?

Or does it require advertisers to make a DC 25 marketing level check in order to effectively advertize stuff to you?

 

[francisca]

I've never been swayed by superlatives. Matter of fact, when I see them, I get suspicious.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I've never been swayed by superlatives. Matter of fact, when I see them, I get suspicious.

That's about where I am now...

I still recall Gene Shalit's quote about The Truman Show, "...one of the finest movies of our time, maybe of all time..."

I mean come on!

 

[Starman]

I believe all marketing hype, every last bit of it. Why would they lie to me?

 

[Mark CMG]

I believe all marketing hype, every last bit of it. Why would they lie to me?

Because you are wise, and you are handsome, and you sing well too!

 

[wedgeski]

Superlatives only work on me these days when they're in jest, although I do get particularly amused when a movie is trailed in February as 'The film of the year'.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together."