Why “Head On” Commercial is The Most Brilliant Commercial of the Year

By Igor Mordkovich on Oct 3, 2006 in Marketing Strategy, General, Traditional Marketing

You might hate it or love it, but here is the brilliancy … you most likely know it.

“Head on … Apply Directly to forehead, Head on … Apply Directly to forehead, Head on … Apply Directly to forehead, etc”

Who said you need a $150K commercial production to make it work? Do you remember any of those expensive pharmaceutical commercials as well as you remember “The Head On” commercial?

I am sure this thing won’t win “Commercial of the year” (Ad Awards) contest, but who cares? It makes money!

Once again, we see that in order to win in today’s “grey” and “loud” advertising, you have to be different. If people are used to one thing, show them something they wouldn’t expect to see in that medium and you have their attention.

Not many people understand this. I am sure that if an ad agency came to a boardroom full of “grey hair, 60+ year old execs” (I have nothing against grey hair) with an idea to repeat the same annoying thing 3 times, they’d say … “I hate it!”

And now I’ll beat the dead horse again.

In order to sell, your advertising needs to stop your target prospect from whatever they are doing (interruption marketing). If your ad does not do that, you might as well not run it at all.

How do you stop a busy person and make him/her listen to what you have to say? ……… Be different. Say something no one else is saying. Give something no one else is giving, appear to be like no other. Stop being grey.