A local cardiac center is running an ad ostensibly encouraging people to get their hearts checked "before it's too late." The tag line is "Call Or Be Called," and the ad consists of the Voice of God talking to a woman in a grocery store produce section. God tells the woman it's time for her to go, now. She protests, demonstrating that she eats broccoli--which is why she's in the produce section. God tells her it doesn't matter because her condition is genetic. God then gently berates her for not calling to get her heart tested, because now it's too late. The ad then cuts to the tag line, written in Gothic script, floating in front of a blue sky, and then cuts again to the cardiac center's (and other sponsors') logos.
My first question is: who thought up this thing? It's positively creepy! I doubt it will have its intended effect. It certainly isn't funny in the least. Believe me. My sense of humor is as broad as anyone's, and broader than most everyone's. I recognize the attempt at dark humor in the ad. It fails miserably. It's on the wrong end of absurdity to be effective--let alone funny.
My second question is: if the woman's condition is genetic and it doesn't matter that she eats healthy food, why would getting "the test" make one whit of difference? This ad is spectacularly bad at selling what it says it's trying to sell. It's own internal logic contradicts its putative point.
OK. I realize the central point is really that eating right isn't enough: the test will give people additional information they can use to protect themselves better against genetic heart disease than they could do without having taken the test. This ad does not make that point at all effectively, however.
I am hoping against hope that this was a national ad agency's product, and the local cardiac center bought it, as opposed the center's hiring a local agency and having had active input into the ad's contents. I don't know why that matters except as a point of pride that I wouldn't willingly be caught dead [pun intended--Ed.] living next door to people with such tin ears.
And why is it that the truly funny ads never run enough, and the bad/creepy/offensive ones seem to be on the air ubiquitously?
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