Oh, kids, Doc Nagel is flummoxed.
I'm sure you've seen TV ads for high-tech gizmos featuring taglines that are conspiratorily whispered. The first I noticed was the Sega Dreamcast ad that said "[sotto voce] It's thinking!"
Ewuhwuwuhuhuh!!! Get that thing away from me!
But that's the problem: why would anyone think a creepy whisper would sell something? If I was considering buying some allegedly crypto-satanic unfathomable thingamajig, practically the worst thing a marketing bastard could do to instill in me that reverie called "consumer confidence" would be to stage-whisper in my ear!
Other recent ads have offered us various sweet nothings about what video games or cars we should buy, what e-commerce sites we should visit, even what food we should eat. I have thought a bit about this, and come up with a few possible motivations for this new trend. Now I'm offering visitors to this page a chance to vote for their favorite!
Since I posted this review, I have received numerous responses to the survey. Thus far, it looks like this (numbers rounded down):
Sexy: 11%
Makes consumers gullible: 11%
Ad agency stupidity: 11%
Scaring consumers: 5%
Hypnosis: 41%
Conspiracy: 29% (but I think this number was the result of a plot).
Add your own opinion. You could be part of a marketing miracle!