It’s time for another round of awesome commercials. This time, I’m focusing on commercials that are using a character to sell the product. What makes a commercial memorable? I don’t have a marketing degree, but I think a commercial is memorable when it does something that surprises you. Recent commercials promote a product but don’t really have anything to do with the product being sold. And if they do have something in common, it’s very indirectly related.

Layered within the above trend in marketing and commercials is another facet, the creation of a series out of a concept and the use of characters to sell these products. Think of Flo from Progressive and the Mayhem guy from Allstate. And that’s just the beginning. They’re almost like mascots. I think this has to do with the fact that marketers believe that Millennials are more likely to support a character versus a brand on its own. I’m not formally educated in the business field, but I think this may have to do with the fact that Millennials grew up with characters. The media pushes people and celebrities on us at every turn. We have to listen to the details of their lives on the news and watch as their universes play out like soap operas. Celebrities have brands of clothing, perfume and more and their faces pop up on labels, in the commercials, practically everywhere. Since this trend seems to work out, regular companies have been trying to create celebrity with memorable characters who pop up again and again in various commercials. Just like Captain Crunch selling us his cereal and Britney Spears selling her perfume (gross), Flo sells us on Progressive and the skinny redhead (does she have a name?) sells us Wendy’s.

It may be that I like the following commercials because I’m a Millennial. I can’t claim to actually use any of the products or services being sold so I don’t know if that means that their marketing tactics failed with me or not. Regardless, they did succeed in making their brand or, at the very least, the commercial, memorable.

Okay so my boss sent this out to me and my coworkers in an email on a Wednesday. I haven’t actually seen this one on TV. But regardless, it still cracked me up and I felt that it deserved a place in this list. I like the use of puns in these commercials.

This Old Spice commercial is just another example of a company using a character to entice and entertain customers. This guy shows up in a lot of their commercials over time and he is indirectly selling the idea to men that if you use this product, you could be like me. More directly, he is selling to the women watching TV and enticing them to buy this product for their boyfriend/husband, what have you. They may have some insights into their consumers that suggest that the woman in a man’s life determines the sort of deodorant, aftershave, or body wash that a man uses. That’s just speculation on my part.

This specific commercial is a little old. I think it aired in 2010. What I enjoyed about this commercial: the pompous nature of it made me laugh. The people making the commercial are extremely aware that they are making a commercial and intentionally take things over the top.

As I mentioned above, I also love the Mayhem commercials. I don’t think I know a single person who dislikes these. This one is kind of old, but it’s still my favorite. It relies on stereotypes to make its joke, which is not always the best idea in the world. I’m sure there’s someone out there who was offended by this commercial. But, that’s their problem.

At the time that this commercial was airing, it was my absolute favorite commercial on television. I love the randomness of the conversations that these kids have with the spokesperson. The awkward pause in this video really makes it for me.

The concept of asking a child their opinion to prove the simplicity of something is not new, and really in all honesty it’s very childish and not the way someone should go about living their life. I’m not sure how good this concept is as an actual selling tactic, but it makes for great entertainment.They’ve made a number of these that crack me up.
NOTE: Even though AT&T puts on a great commercial, I’m still not switching. Sorry.

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As you can see, the world of commercials is alive and well despite the advent of DVR, Hulu and Netflix (yes I know you get some commercials on these). Screen time on television is still a part of many companies’ budgets. Usually I avoid commercials, because the misses typically bomb big time and really, I’m not a fan of bathroom humor. But sometimes I like to sit and watch and see what happens and analyze how companies are interpreting the consumer at that particular point in time. Hopefully the commercials above will give you a good chuckle as they did for me!

What commercials do you like? Feel free to share links below.