We’re Earthling? No I am not.
I am not Earthlink. I am Pope, at least that is what the biggest German tabloid called us after the election of the new pope: We are pope. And I am Germany – if you had noticed the recent Technorati rankings for “Du bist Deutschland” (see also my post on “You read German, right?“).
Dave Slusher discusses the Earthlink spot in Shows from the Podshow network. If you don’t know or heard it before – imagine silly dingdong music and then – with voices like a happy mom on too many martinis:
Do you believe anything is possible? We do. We’re Earthlink. We believe in an internet that is safe from viruses and scammers. We’re Earthlink. We believe your personal information should be just that — personal. And we believe your internet should be a friend not a foe. We’re Earthlink. Make the smart choice. Visit earthlink.net and discover what our internet experts can do for you. Earthlink – we revolve around you.
I actually thougth for the first three times that this was some kind of joke. And – look at the topic – that they said “we are earthlings”.
Now, don’t me wrong, I know that some podcast definitely need cash in order to pay for the bandwidth bills, but may I agree with Dave that this is a fucking uninteresting spot, especially in this market of podcasting? As Dave said:
I’m not really in the market for dialup. Is that what they are selling? I don’t know. Now the question on the floor is “why should I care?†If they can’t be bothered to tell me that in their allotted time and sublet attention, no chance I’m going to pursue this.
Neither am I. Dial-up, are you kidding? That is what I am using when I am at my families because they don’t do any better. Second, it would be new to me that the information on their website sells to me. And third: Where is the context? With the sponsor before, Absolute Vodka announcing a new flavour, I could at least relate a little, but this one is just wasting my time.
Advertising in Podcasting? Hell yes. And if for example Brian Ibbott from Coverville gets sponsoring from a – tada- company which is selling cd’s of covers and like that, this is working too. As I said recently and many times before: Give me an RSS feed where I can have good commercials. Infomercials as well. I actually like to see good advertisement I have some relationship to.
And I also congratulate on Podshow getting this sponsor – it is just that I am now also tuning out there. And ignoring the commercial. And blog about my not liking it. I am not sure if that was something Earthlink wanted from me when they paid that money …
Is Dave Slusher’s Evil Genius adfree? No. He always mentions the band he has his music from and he plugs his sales for T-Shirts. Okay with me. Because there is context and it matters.
Tag(s): eartlink, podcast advertisement, podshow
Tags: european view, Marketing
Totally agree. The spot is booooring. And does not fit the context. Nor the international audience Gillmor attracts. Well said.
Hope they get the message that their commercial isn’t working. But I hope they simply change it to suit the interests of podcasters rather than pulling out of the conversation.
Just a little background for international readers (and writers :) – the ad seems to be part of their recent TV advertising series that makes Earthlink people look like a bunch of dreamers … and I must say I actually dig the TV ads. Just because it seems in an odd way really geeky to advertise with unicorns and weird giants and not with the usual fasterhighercheaper rhetoric. Of course, if you just take the audio and lose the unicorns you’re kinda spoiling the fun.
Thanks Janko, I really needed that melody of last unicorn in my head for this day … And now you got me hunting (a bit) for the commercial. :))