Marketers Are Idiots - Now With Hoodia Edition

I just saw a 10-second TV commercial for a brand of tea I had never heard of. First of all, 10s are an odd form of advertising. They go by awfully fast, but most marketers think it's just a shorter version of a :30 and all they have to do is talk faster. 10s work best when you are imparting a very simple and single message.

The message in this spot was, Mega-T Green Tea - Now with Hoodia! Well, I suppose that would be OK if the moron marketer hadn't made two broad and erroneous assumptions. The first is that the American public is familiar enough with Mega-T Green Tea that we are going to immediately recognize the name and remember the package. Well, sorry, this isn't Campbell's Soup or Coke. Mega-T Green Tea just isn't enough of a household name to get away with assuming people recognize your brand.

Secondly, the idiotic marketers at this company assume that everyone has heard of hoodia, knows what it is, knows what it (supposedly) does and immediately recognize it as a good thing. Otherwise you could say, "Now with piddypat" or "Now with flatula!" and it would have the exact same impact - which is zero.

So to go on TV and yell twice in 10 seconds the name of your product and add "now with hoodia!" is pretty ludicrous. Actually, I had never heard of hoodia and it made me laugh. I thought they had made it up! Of course, now that I know it's a form of cactus that only grows in South Africa and that its claim to fame is that it is 10,000 more powerful at telling your brain you're full than glucose, I'm intrigued. But I really don't think most people out in TV Land are going to do a little research just because the Mega-T company made this earth shattering announcement.

They say the proof that hoodia works is that there are no fat Kalahari bushmen! Now THAT would be worth yelling about in a 10-second commercial!