2007 Hatch Awards - Opening Video

[andrevrd]

This ad is just as crap as the original only with less relevance than it had in 1984. I'm going with the monkey.

[TheDarkOn3]

However bad focus groups are, the original ad was still retarded.

[jazznuh]

I like dog commercials :D

[smartkani]

Why creative people in advertising HATE focus group research. Hope clients who are in love with LINK are watching this!

[42doh]

Nicely done Roger. Just saw this for the first time.

[f10odogherty]

The makers of this video don't know much about real market research and focus groups. To say that focus groups don't work is a topic as big as advertising controls our minds. Please, try to differenciate between good and bad resarch as you do between good and bad advertising.. Or maybe you suggest advertising is always good and full of creativity?

[samgod]

I think the point is that focus groups are effective only in certain areas and can be grossly overused, misused, and misread.

[farbink]

Oh wow. story of my life. how is it possible that these people think they are helping?

[rissaofthesaiyajin]

People in large groups are stupid. History continues to prove this.

[fsfbritton]

god that group was daft

[deepir]

This exactly what happens to me at work.

My boss=focus group.

[ennahoja]

The brightly colored woman symbolizes Apple, and she is neither boring or depressing. She wins in the end, managing to de-brainwash the drones in the room. It makes perfect sense and changing it would take the message away.

[ennahoja]

The original Macintosh commercial DID use real people. And putting the Apple logo on everybody's shirt would not have made any sense whatsoever, because Apple here symbolizes the revolutionary, the new, the opposite of what the drones stand for. The depressing mood is there in the beginning because it symbolises windows!

[applemac5]

You are absolutely right!

[MatrixMaster2]

actually it symbolizes ibm, but close enough.

[ennahoja]

Ah, sorry, I tend to generalize. I should stop that... Anyway, thanks for correcting me, I like to know as much as possible, preferably correct stuff, about Apple :D

[session036]

Thank GOD someone knows what they are talking about.. reference to ennahoja

[squozen]

@ennahoja No, Windows didn't exist in '84. The oppressor was IBM.

[andresvillafana]

focus group sessions are imposed by advertisers who are afraid to make decisions

[andresvillafana]

Imagine what would happen if ad agencies let focus groups make the creativity!

[ROGERBALDACCI]

I love this video. Whoever created it is simply brilliant.

[Towsby04]

The original commercial only aired once nationally. If it aired 5 times per night, it would have been just as annoying as the "Head On" ads.

If you want people to sit through an ad repeatedly, it had better be entertaining. 9 out of 10 people don't really care about commercials as "art."

[Towsby04]

Yeah, it had a MUCH bigger impact during the Cold War.

Conformity -> IBM (Soviet Union)

Blonde -> Apple (USA)

And Apple's position in the marketplace is so different now than it was then that the commercial just doesn't make as much sense.

They aren't trying to convince people to abandon the command line in favor of a GUI. Apple has the dominant mp3 player and Windows is considered to basically be just as user-friendly, so it doesn't really make sense that "Big Brother" is Microsoft.

[charliealfonzo]

no it is NOT as user-friendly, hahaha...

you're funnier than these people at the focus group.

[toxicrainn]

This is the first time I've seen the commercial (linked by a friend) and I had the exact same reaction as the people in the focus group, so. :/

[littlebeartoe]

The ultimate irony is that it's Apple customers who have become the drones, thanks to Steve Jobs's dedication to closed systems.

[mm34287]

to people who aren't getting this joke: you're either not in advertising or an advertising moron.

[andresvillafana]

i totally agree on this

[earlybirdsflyhigher]

I feel amused -in a cynical way- that a top agency as Arnold Worldwide still lives in the spirit of 1984.

[tubesuf]

Please don't insult research and advertising by asking the wrong questions. That's exactly what communication professionals keep stressing throughout - when communicating, who, where, when, how, why... everything matters, not just one of them!

[tubesuf]

And btw, for all those sceptics who are gonna turn around and say, "Hey, but this creative you mention is what is meant for the common people out there!"

True. But that "creative" is not gonna be reviewed by those people. It's gonna be consumed and used as a parameter to decide whether to buy or not. It's an encouragement device, not a scapegot for unqualified critical appreciation.

[tubesuf]

This is bullshit. On what basis were those people recruited? That's like saying you go to a doctor, take his prescription and then prior to using the medicines, you go and ask a bunch of random people (not their fault, the questioner's fault) what they think of the prescription.

Obviously, they are going to say it's crap because they'd be guessing. Why? Because they are not qualified to review creative, let alone half-baked creative.

[retorolf]

Yes. What you call "a focus group" in advertising. It is beeing done, and the point of the video is, as you say, that this is a really stupid thing to do!

[saftevand]

This is f...ing scary because it is so true. Having people unload their scepticism towards advertising, creativity and big ideas in return for a gift voucher should be downright illegal...

So advertising clients - please trust your gut instincts, believe in ideas and change something!

[honeybeewu]

These people should be tied up and stoned. ( looks at watch.... ) I have about 25 minutes between meetings today. I'll squeeze it in.

[TVgigi]

My faith in Americans again dashed. And I am one! This is sad, sad, sad. Someone please bring back critical thinking. Americans do not know how to read between the lines. I feel almost ill.

[ecpeter]

To me this is the same recycled 1984 commercial that I originally saw. I understand the overall message but it's just been done before. I would say they just need to go in a new direction.

[Pecoae]

Uhh... It's a focus group being used to show that you shouldn't get your consumers to be creative for you - this isn't a real ad. It is the board for the original ad, actually, except for the date/name change.

[malachy14]

Brilliant.

[fooeyusa]

I've been part of these focus groups before. Everyone is an idiot and it feels like time has stopped. Watching this makes me sweat!

[meganificent]

this is why working in advertising sucks.

[kgeiger]

A "must see" for every planner out there!

[artangel777]

what a great idea. totally funny.

[rslr]

awesome. this should be required viewing for anyone in Account Service . . . or anyone who recommends using a Focus Group to review concepts.

[daralathas]

OMG iCube CONFIRMED!!!!!111111oneoneone