Creepy Matrix commercial

Creepy Matrix commercial

by Mark Suszko

on Apr 16, 2013 at 4:05:46 am

Is it just me, or is this creepy in a bad way, regarding selling the product?

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Todd Terry

on Apr 16, 2013 at 5:18:05 am

I had kinda mixed feelings about it when I first saw it on the boob tube a couple of days ago...

From a concept and production standpoint I actually really liked it... it didn't hit me at all as creepy, I thought it was pretty slick.

From a marketing standpoint though I thought the concept was an extremely odd choice.

I mean, the last Matrix movie was 10 years ago. Much too long ago to still be current/relevant... but not nearly long enough to be "nostalgic." It's in that awkward region in the middle that doesn't seem to have a lot of value for either current parody value nor that nostalgic "remember when" feeling either.

Same reason you don't see Austin Powers hawking goods on TV.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Mark Suszko

on Apr 16, 2013 at 5:47:35 am

It's creepy because they are trying to promote high technology for medicine, with a character representing everything scary about man melding with machine. It would be like Lon Chaney for Covergirl makeup. Or any extreme opposites you could imagine.

I did like the lollypop ending.

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Steve Martin

on Apr 16, 2013 at 1:35:41 pm

Yea Mark - I thought it was very odd... and yes, now that you mention it - kind of creepy too.

I didn't get that warm fuzzy feeling about health care that they usually try to invoke. But maybe that was the point? Does anyone really think that health tech firms really give a rat's a** about the individual patient? Perhaps their just pointing at the elephant in the room?

Still... it rubbed me the wrong way.

Production is fun - but lets not forget: Nobody ever died on the video table!

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Roger Van Duyn

on Apr 16, 2013 at 3:32:28 pm

I wonder about the whole point of the commercial. From my thirty years in health care, the department heads would tell the CFO of the clinic or hospital what equipment they wanted, and then budgets were hammered out, competitive bids etc. There were leasing arrangements, outright purchases, and in the laboratory, reagent rental agreements. I always called it funny money because the equipment I used every day cost way more than my house.

Why put a commercial like that on the tv? I mean, the general public isn't gonna clamor so much for GE equipment when they go to the doctor. And even if the public did, so what? If Siemens gives a better bid, or has a better working relationship with the institution.

I mean, should the ad be pointed to the target market? And if it's just PR, brand awareness, well, I think it's creepy too. Kind of like at the Terminator Pavilion at Universal Studios where the robot is rocking the baby.

But that is supposed to give you the creeps!

Roger

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Todd Terry

on Apr 16, 2013 at 5:05:09 pm

GE has done some absolutely stunningly good warm'n'fuzzy corporate image stuff in the past.

Maybe they felt that approach just wasn't doing it for them, and decided to try something else.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Mark Suszko

on Apr 16, 2013 at 9:30:19 pm

Roger, that spot I think is playing more to investors than consumers. Don't make it less creepy, though.

Re: Creepy Matrix commercial

by Christopher Travis

on Apr 21, 2013 at 6:04:41 pm

As a reference point for an ad extolling the benefits of technological advancement, The Matrix seems a terrible choice. The point of that film was that we, as a species, sought such reliance on machines that's eventually they took control over us. To use it as a ref point for an ad about health care technology seems even more absurd when you think of the life support system that every human was wired up to in the films.

As I watched the ad, the only pay off I could imagine was that the guy would reveal that he was annoyed at GMs insistence on developing technologies that keep humans alive. But no, he was genuinely interested in how it all worked. He said in the first matrix film he saw humans as a virus. He couldn't hate them more.. The only thing I can take from this is that GM are advancing the progress of machines over humans.

But then, if its aimed at jnvestors then I suppose they don't care much about the future of our species as long as they see a quick buck to be made.