Oct
31
Is Creepy In?
October 31, 2006
It’s been over a year since Charles Schwab (SCHW) introduced their “Talk to Chuck” campaign, and I believe the results are mixed.
Additionally, it’s only been five months since HP (HPQ) launched their “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign and I have no idea how it’s doing.
What I do know is that they both chose “unique” graphics to get their message across, and I’m not so sure they chose the right graphics.
Let’s talk to Chuck first:
The branding of the campaign consists of two components: The “Talk to Chuck” slogan, and the unique graphics of their television ads; a technique called Rotoscoping created by Bob Sabiston.
Let’s take each one separately:
1) “Talk to Chuck”: Brilliant! I love it! The “Talk to Chuck” slogan adds a human factor to this company and removes the stodginess of Wall Street. It’s easy to remember, and when I say I’ve “talked to Chuck” at business dinners, people know it’s Charles Schwab.
2) Rotoscoped Commercial: Just because something is “cool”, “new” or “unique” doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your brand and that’s how I feel about Mr. Sabiston’s graphics and Charles Schwab.
Rotoscoping has worked well in the past and has been featured in movies and music videos. When a small Norwegian band named A-ha used it in their music video; “Take on Me” in 1986, it won six MTV Video Music awards and was nominated for best video of the year at the American Music Awards. Not bad for a relatively unknown band. But not so good for an established financial firm.
Though the look is “cool”, it’s also a little creepy, and I don’t believe Schwab wants to be perceived as creepy. And honestly… when I watch the commercials they just look weird to me.
As for HP, their ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners needed a typeface for the campaign and was inspired by the soft covers of Jonathan Safran Foer’s books; “Everything Is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel“.
The look was created by Jonathan Gray, otherwise known as Gray318, and I do believe they look a little Tim Burtonesque… creepy. Even the colors chosen, Orange, Black and Blue are Halloween like.
Is creepy the new “in” look? Is weird the emotion you want to evoke when customers think of your brand?
Schwab and HP… lose the look!
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