Barbara Lippert of Adweek likes the new Yahoo spot from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. She writes, “because the spot is so nicely cast, shot and cut, it makes up in its production what it lacks in originality. It’s fun to watch, simple as that.”
I don’t see the need to be quite that generous. The point of the spot is paid off with this line: “Stay close to the spotlight with the number one online source for entertainment news.” Yet the action in the spot doesn’t say stay close to the spotlight, it says dream big, one day you might be in the spotlight (not chained to a desk in a dreary corporate job).
I can’t argue that our culture is celebrity obsessed. But once you admit that, and decide to go agressively after this market segment, you need to prove that you have more to offer than TMZ and Paris Hilton combined. The spot above doesn’t do that. Worse yet, it gives the non-celebrity obsessed no reason whatsoever to venture into Yahoo’s domain. In fact, it may scare people away.
