There are television ads – and ad trends – that confuse many viewers. 

Either they don’t know who the ad is targeting … could it be them? … or if it really works at all? 

If you don’t have experience with advertising, these can be hard questions to answer. 

However, I’ve had a lot of experience in and with advertising, and from all angles:  writing, shooting, editing and placing ads for employers and clients.  I shared in my first ADDY award in 1975, fifty years ago, and I’ve won three all-told, one for scripting an award-winning television commercial for a hospital’s labor-and-delivery service. 

Based on this experience, join me as I unpack some of today’s ads that either work or don’t.  I’ll also look at a new trend – copy-cat ads from competitors that oddly look alike, a really terrible idea.

Jardiance: Let’s start with Jardiance, a product created to help patients cope with Type 2 diabetes.  Several competitors are out there, but for lack of credibility, Jardiance takes the cake.

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Here is a screen shot from the video above of Deanna “DellaCioppa” Colón.

Jardiance’s first notable television ad – the one with the “memorable” jingle, impossible to forget no matter how hard you try – visits the set of an ad “shoot.” There, a large-bodied actress, Deanna “DellaCioppa” Colón, is seen dancing and singing her way through their theme song like she’s the star in a sixty-second Broadway show. 

The best three things I can say about this ad are that it musically tells what the pill does.  Next, it is technically well-presented, as if it was a scene from the film adaptation of a hit musical.  Finally, it’s lead actress, Ms. Colón, visually represents a large segment of the target audience, being on the threshold of morbid obesity herself.  She also comes across well, as if on Broadway.

Diabetics tend to be overweight, which is why competitor Ozempic is so popular. That drug also addresses the symptoms of diabetes, even while helping the user to lose a lot of weight, fast, without dieting or exercise.  Many non-diabetic Ozempic users find sympathetic doctors who proscribe the med just for its near-miraculous weight-loss properties.

Jardiance doesn’t have as strong a side effect.  If it did, their........

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