“Amateur Spot” To Air In 2.4 Million Dollar Slot

by David Burn on January 5, 2007

Dorito’s Crash The Superbowl promotion is one of a growing number of Consumer Generated Content campaigns currently underway.

Kristin Dehnert, the consumer who generated the content above says, “I’m a Location Manager and Scout for commercials as my paid day job but my true passion is writing and directing. My dream is to make directing commercials and feature films my new day job.”
Which leads me to my point—”make your own commercial” ideas are generally not about hearing from the consumer, rather they’re about seeing work from aspiring creatives.

http://adpulp.com David Burn

Our demographic analysis of AdPulp’s readership indicates that a vast majority of our readers understand English, not Greek. Hence, you are once again overly obtuse for this audience.
http://www.adpulp.com Danny G

Nancy, please try being coherent in English before you attempt being incoherent in other languages.
Mark C

Interesting, she wants directing to be her new day job. She’s already doing it and at a much lower pay scale than any young, hot commercial director signed with a cool, trendy production house. So what does she want, to sign with the cool, trendy, produciton company who will raise her day rate 1000%? She’ll then lose jobs to hungry, aspiring location scouts who want to make directing their new day job…
circle of life stuff…
Carl LaFong

Why is everyone hatin’ on Nancy?
I think she adds a welcome note of insanity to any discussion.
Besides, are her bizarre ramblings and loony non-sequitirs any less coherent and cogent than the marketing speak of, say, Jeff Hicks?
http://adpulp.com David Burn

Mark C,
Thank you for commenting on the post, not the comments!
Carl,
You’re sweet. No, really.
Nancy,
The pay that Mark C mentions is not YOUR pay, it’s Dehnert’s pay.
http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com HighJive

She’s terrible. Completely incomprehensible. Amateurish and inane. And I don’t mean nancy. This spot only demonstrates that consumers need to remain consumers.
http://www.acleareye.com Tom Asacker

I’m not so sure about that last thought, HighJive. You can find our prediction here(#5):
http://gurubbq.com/episodes/2007-01-03
http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com HighJive

tom,
your prediction may be true, as advertisers and agencies have traditionally jumped on bandwagons — even when the bandwagons are ill-conceived and rolling in wrong directions.
my comment is based on the fact that the overwhelming majority of the consumer-generated work is bad. then again, so is the overwhelming majority of work coming from agencies.
the doritos spot depicted here does not even match the quality level of standard doritos spots. it’s contrived, cliched and corny.
plus, to call a commercial location manager and scout a “consumer” is really stretching the definition.
bbdo or goodby or whoever is handling the doritos account would never have produced this dreck themselves.
http://adpulp.com David Burn

High Jive,
I don’t think the spot’s half bad.
A professional like yourself will indeed grasp that the “Doritos makes the man” concept is, in fact contrived, cliched and corny. But the spot looks good, it’s cast well, has decent motion graphics and editing. All things Dehnert would be expected to bring to the table as a director.
Asking a “consumer” to be a top-notch conceptual thinker and to have the executional skills of a top director is asking too much. Ain’t gonna happen. These spots are not meant to equal the spots from Goodby or another top shop. They’re simply meant to engage the more creative segment of the snack food audience. On those terms, I think Doritos succeeds.
http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com HighJive

i guess we have different points.
if these spots are not meant to equal the work of a top shop at least on some level, especially when the brand is employing a top shop, who really benefits?
as a professional, i don’t think the spot is well cast, directed, shot, edited, etc. it’s even poorly branded. it looks like something out of the late 80s. but that’s beside the point.
one could argue that advertisers like doritos have obligations to its customers. after all, the customer is ultimately paying for the advertising. we should get our money’s worth, especially if shops like bbdo and goodby are on board.
consumer-generated advertising is not necessarily a bad idea. but so far, the executions of the idea suck. it’s like staging american idol without taylor hicks, fantasia, ruben studdard, kelly clarkson, etc.
it just becomes bad amateur hour.
but as always, that’s just my opinion.
Mark C

She’s no more a consumer than Leslie Dektor, an extremely successful director. CHeck out her web site:
http://80dfilms.com/
She knows what she is doing. I think the future of marketing will have a space for people like Kristin who is maybe a lot like us… even Nancy.
Carl LaFong

Sure, anything that gives consumers greater control and a louder voice is a good thing. Marketing should be a dialog, not a monolog.
But ever the contrarian, I can’t help but wonder if all the hype about CGC — like having Ad Age name “John Doe” as “Agency of the Year” — is a little overinflated.
All the talk is about how many people are creating their own commercials. But how many people are actually watching them?
Yes, “The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment” was a YouTube sensation. But as High Jive rightly noted in one of his previous posts, “the overwhelming majority of the consumer-generated work is bad.” Like most home movies, they are far more fun to make than to watch.
Why would people be any more likely to sit through an amatuerish, irritating or inane commercial from Ad Age’s “John Doe” than they would a typical spot from a team of advertising professionals (assuming that’s not a contradiction in terms)?
daveednyc

I actually understood Nancy’s first comment — and agreed with it. After that she lost me. BTW David, it’s “abstruse”, not “obtuse”. Common mistake…
As for the spot, not knowing diddly about Kristen, I’d say it shows promise. But more to the point, who else but “aspiring creatives” (pace, Nancy) are going to put in the time/money/muscle to give Doritos free ads? It’s spec work disguised as consumer content and the clients know it. There’s little risk and no cost to put more crap into a medium that produces less and less ROI every year.
daveednyc

Nancy: pace (Latin) = “with all due respect”
Carl: Since it would cost advertisers next to nothing, I don’t think whether or not anyone sees them is an issue. Clients get people actively participating in the brand in a way that is almost completely risk-free. Sure the amaturishness could negatively impact the brand, but clients will always reserve the right of approval and vet whatever c-g stuff comes their way.
http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com HighJive

Don’t advertisers and ad agencies have obligations to talent and production unions? That is, the Doritos spot presented here probably used union talent and production companies, otherwise the folks responsible (agencies and advertisers) would be subject to heavy fines and other political ramifications. Or maybe the rules have been relaxed. In any case, it all ultimately makes “consumer-generated” a very fuzzy term. It’s one thing to let the public produce stuff without advertiser approval and post it on YouTube. It’s quite another thing for an advertiser to run stuff on network TV. Any broadcast producers or production managers out there that can offer insight?
mcass777

I began my career in broadcast talent dept at Leo Burnet and am now a writer,producer, editor and even director for small to large scale advertisers so I have do have a perspective on the issue.
First, it was a contest so the client can hide behind that or simply pay every a union scale and residuals. Second, anyone can work on one spot w/o joining the union (Taft/Hartley law) but let’s be honest, that spot better run a lot on network TV to recoup that outlay to the indivdual. In my current position, clients contract to us to do the entire production so we skirt union rules when an issue. SAG has really been weakend since the stike a few years back and companies get a way with what they can…..
I am all for empowering the little guy so all of this is cool, whether really creative or not…