Let’s talk about LG’s commercial for its new Scarlet TV series. Yeah, I know this campaign has been annoying TV viewers for over a month or two already, but I don’t think it’s too late for me to share why I think it fails royally. And I’m not even going to broach the lackluster creative or hyperbolic writing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I hate this campaign across the board, but I pick my battles wisely.
That said, this campaign is indicative of a much, much greater problem plaguing the advertising industry: Agency-types carelessly throwing around the buzzword “storytelling” and pretend that what they’re doing for their clients’ brands. But, rather than storytelling, they’re simply “telling stories.” There’s a big difference…
So, LG. Its first commercial starts with an allusion to some new "TV series," called "Scarlet," coming out on April 30th. The new series will supposedly be about some mysterious girl named Scarlet (who, get this, is wearing a Scarlet-colored dress! Check out the creative chops on LG!). The commercial ends with a call to action: a date (4/30/2008) and a URL. Basically, if you want to get to the bottom of the contrived (yet cryptic!) commercial, well then, you better go here to find out more.
After April 30, the spot's ending changed. Now, instead of the call to action, the final frame actually shows the new LG TV. Get it? The new TV series? A series…of TVs? Duh.
So, what have we learned from LG’s new commercials, boys and girls? Absolutely nothing. And that’s the problem. You see, while telling stories might catch consumers’ attention, they don’t get any of the pertinent information they need in the process. In the case of LG’s TV Series commercial, storytelling would have involved telling a story about, say, something related to their new TVs. Oh, I don’t know—maybe these TVs have certain attributes, characteristics, or capabilities that make them distinct and enticing to consumers. If so, the story should be woven around those, don’t ya think? Instead of storytelling, though, LG TV chose to "tell a story"—a really irritating one at that.
The way I see it, storytelling involves the actual telling of a brand
or product’s story; offering a legitimate storyline that falls in line
with topics the brand can discuss with authority. By
doing this, consumers are given the opportunity to find out more about
the brand’s, well, story. It’s a pretty simple concept, really. Telling
stories, on the other hand, is the sorry act of producing a
"creative," "entertaining" storyline that ultimately has nothing
to do with the brand in question. The brand is then aligned with this random story in effort to grab the consumers’ attention.
Again, seemingly interesting story + brand = consumers’ attention.
Remind you of anything? Hell, it reminds me of traditional advertising:
Totally unrelated (yet entertaining!) content + brand = consumers’
attention. I thought we’d moved way beyond this. LG reminds us that we
haven’t.
My hatred for the campaign, although very strong from the offset, only increased when I heard some LG rep talking about "the story" on the red carpet at the launch party for the new LG TV series launch. WARNING: Rampant usage of the words/phrases "innovative," "never-before-done" and "emotional story."
Yep, there was a full Hollywood launch party a couple days before it was revealed that the new TV series was really just a series of TVs. And, just as with the commercials, guests were kept in the dark about what they were going to see inside. It almost makes you wonder if LG is afraid to tell you about its new TV.
I will give one thing to LG, though: Tricking celebrities is always kind of funny.