Acting Awards

We have Oscar, Emmy, and Toni acting awards—and perhaps some unknown to me—but how about an Addie for advertisements on television? They could be highly entertaining with a little more effort. When I find one that is really clever, I can watch it repeatedly, but daily commercials about the same thing in the same non-entertaining way gets to be too much. I hit mute at that point. A really good ad currently running shows a lady sitting at a table with an antiques expert, copying, of course, a bit from Antique Road Show. The man has a colorful bird in his hand, and talks about its artistic qualities. One quickly realizes it’s not an animate creature. Then comes the time to put an evaluation on it. The expert says, “A bird in the hand is worth . . . two in the bush.” The lady becomes wide-eyed with surprise and says, “Really?” I love it. I could watch this one every day. That commercial is advertising Geico.

I bet you were already thinking of the Geico ads. They are certainly prize-worthy, with enough variety not to bore you. They would certainly give Cable One some real competition. Your part of the country could probably produce a cable ad of equal cleverness. Now that is just step one. Read on.

I advocate we should run all these clever commercials in the evening—say from 6:00 to 7:00 at the start, perhaps ending at a choice bedtime of fun for the little ones—and have adult viewers vote for the best of the week, but only one vote per computer. Even two or three computers in the household would not distort the voting too much so long as politicians aren’t guiding the project. There could be several honorable mentions for the week, several for the month, and eventually an Addie for the year, when the family gathers around to watch the best for a couple of hours. I don’t need to say this program should not include political campaigning, do I? Can’t you just see the gecko walking up to get his award, and making a quick, sassy speech, or sulking sweetly in a corner, if he doesn’t win?

Madison Avenue would surely work hard to produce these, for the Addie should be a large amount of money. And the big bonus: no running to the fridge for snacks to eat on the commercials.

P. S. I got this idea from Germany, not that I’ve been there, but students who lived there told me about it. The most popular television program of the evening, they said. Now to get entrepreneurs to read this. You talk it up, why not? Thanks.

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