Wow, I just saw a TV spot that would make Machiavelli proud. After little research I find out some very, very interesting facts. The very thing a they teach you good advertisement should do. Bravo ad guys, job VERY well done!
The ad I'm talking about is visually, very simple, and consists of people sitting in front of stacks of money. We aren't talking little stacks of money, more like "I just knocked off an armored truck"-sized stacks of money. As the camera slowly pans in, and melodramatic music plays, each of those people simply say the total amount of the stack sitting in front of them. "192,186 Dollars", "678,477 Dollars", "356,931 Dollars", "1,358,907 Dollars". On that last one the accountant sitting next to him chimes in "and 41 cents". I thought to myself "that was a well-played humorous twist". As the commercial played, and I felt the music and camera work do its magic on my emotions, I put down the box of takeout chinese I had been stuffing into my face and paid close attention to the details of the TV spot. I roll my eyes as I realize I am probably watching the latest Republican "fear Obama spot". As usual, my mind races to find the punchline before it's shown. "Obama will raise taxes for the working class..." No, these are all business people and the numbers are too large... "Obama's tax increases will hurt small business owners..." that's a bit cheesy, but would the Republicans really be so desperate, especially after such a strong showing by Palin coming off the recent Republican convention? Ok, I can't figure it out where this is going, I am very interested in what the punchline is (as well as doing a tear-down analysis of the commercial as an example of a well done advertisement). Ah yes, the music crescendos and cuts out and in the next shot, the first guy shown looks up from his pile of money and says "I don't think I want to pay this any more." And then comes the punchline, The Cisco Energy "Tax". My eyebrows quickly crawled two inches up my forehead and my jaw drops. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?! I quickly cracked my usual mischievous grin, laughed and said in disbelief "Who the hell is attacking Cisco?!?!" and at the same time got my answer on the screen, Nortel.
Ok, my current projects are moving at a break neck speeds and I have a backlog of clients and new projects, so I am a few months behind on reading my computer industry magazines, but I hadn't noticed any Nortel ads pushing the energy-efficiency angle. Two minutes later, I am at my desk Googling "Cisco energy tax" and getting back only 6,260 hits. "This has got to be something that's really, really new. Something worth blogging about." So here I am, sharing with you what I've found - and reverse engineering it with you in the way only a hacker could. First, lets start with the actual video on YouTube.
