Could the Staples Ad Campaign be Any More Annoying?
If you’ve seen a Staples commercial during the past few months, you know this rant you’re about to read is justified. If you’ve yet to witness the most annoying commercials since Six Flags introduced that old man dancing to a really irritating song, take a look at them below:
From the first time I saw this commercial, I was annoyed and vowed never to return to Staples again. Of course, I think I’ve only been to a Staples like once or twice before (I remember the prices actually being higher, not lower, than other places), but that’s beside the point. The point is that you can’t annoy people into doing business with you. Creating a loud, hyper, and screaming commercial isn’t the way you want to get customers’ attention. Sure, this commercial gets their attention, but it’s not the kind of attention you want. Unless you’re Billy Mays (R.I.P.), yelling is NOT a good sales technique.
The commercial grates on your ears, and it forces you to frantically look for the remote so you can either:
a) Turn down the volume
b) Change the channel
c) Throw the remote through the screen
But that’s not my only problem with this commercial. The truth is Staples is treating their customers like they’re idiots. They create an intentionally loud and annoying commercial, which shows you that they think this is the kind of low level garbage their customers will respond to. I’m not saying advertisers need to treat their commercials like they’re creating an Oscar award winning movie, but seriously, this mindset of “appeal to the lowest common denominator” has got to stop at some point. It shows poor taste, and it’s really just insulting and rude to heckle and yell at your customers.
Another thing the ad agency that made this commercial didn’t seem to think about: If you’re trying to attract new customers who don’t shop at Staples or already have a negative perception of Staples, do you really think this will bring them into the store? If anything, it only forces them to harden their stance against Staples, ensuring that they definitely don’t step foot inside this store. The annoyance technique only causes people to associate the Staples brand with being annoyed.
I truly hope I don’t know anyone who likes this commercial. Otherwise, it’ll be like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry stops dating a girl because she found a Dockers commercial to be smart and witty.
What do you think? Am I overreacting? Or is this really an early leader for worst commercial of the year?
May 5th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
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May 19th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I have written to Staples about this ad. They blew me off,
as expected.
I will NEVER EVER shop at a Staples again.
To portray your own customers as blithering idiots
is just plain stupid.
June 6th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I love this commercial. It's just goofy and fun, and I like light material like this.
June 9th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
The fact that you wrote an entire column about how this ad doesn't work proves the point that it works.
Good job.
June 15th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
i too have vowed to never go to staples again and as the purchasing agent at my office i have switched to office depot
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:45 pm
AGREED; thanks for starting this thread; I agree with every single objection, here.
October 29th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
staples customers ARE idiots. fact.