Singing Cats and Sandwiches

Ours is a hard job, to be sure. We need to strike the proper balance between engaging the viewer and selling our client's products and services. Anyone who thinks it's easy, probably never had to do it for a living. So most of the time, I give a lot of leeway to spots or ads that hit me as peculiar, because, after all, these poor bastards face the same challenges I do. And we've all had a client force us into something peculiar at one time or another.

But when I saw this spot while eating breakfast yesterday, I was speechless. My husband and I turned and looked at each other, a bit uncertain if we had really just seen what indeed we saw. After a moment of silence my husband said, "the kittens were cute."

In case you haven't seen it yet, take a peek. In fact, watch it a few times.



I do love Quiznos, but this confuses the hell out of me. It's so "off" in so many ways, that I feel like I'm having a stroke while watching it. It doesn't quite rhyme, the meter is off - repeatedly, and I can't quite understand what the cats are saying. The instruments are like nails on a chalkboard and I keep asking why they are wearing those robes.

All of this aside, it does indeed get my attention. It makes me talk about it because it is so weird. But friends, getting consumers' attention is only part of our job. Once we have their attention, we need to sell them something. And I'm not sure this is doing that at all. It's such a spectacle, that it only gets attention for itself, and not the client's products. Crime number one in advertising. In fact, the sandwiches don't really look that appetizing. Which is a shame.

In the interest of science, I will wait to see what the sales numbers for Quiznos tell us in the coming weeks. Perhaps it will sell the hell out of a bunch of sandwiches, who knows.

I will say this: It is fun and weird, but if this spot moves sandwiches, I need to seriously rethink how I approach my work. And maybe I need to add more cats. ;)