Recently I’ve been watching a little too much TV and I have inadvertently become a critic of commercials. I know that’s like saying I’m a wine connoisseur since I can recognize subtle differences between Carlo Rossi “Red” and cooking sherry; but believe me, there’s a difference between a good commercial and a bad one.
For example, the new TurboTax commercial. In an advertising binge, Intuit has created a series of ads featuring Ben Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson*, stars of the $100, $50, and $20 bills, respectively. Here’s the twist: they are painted green as if they just stepped out of their pointillist portraits from our most-coveted currency. Ignoring the fact that the front of all US bills are printed in black (hence the term greenbacks), the TurboTax marketing team have presented us with a terrible alternate reality.
As you can see in the above video, our two relatively forgotten presidents and one founding father are presented as helpful zombies who are looking out for the common man by offering advice on various fiscal matters.
If there is one thing that George Romeo has taught me, it’s that if the reanimated corpse of old Benny shows up at your door backed by Grant and Jackson, you don’t invite them in and discuss IRS statutes, no matter how helpful they seem. Club them on the head and flee to your nearest windowless basement with a bat and a radio. If the zombie apocalypse does befall us, my last worry will not be how much I’m saving on taxes; it will be whether I need to bludgeon my best friend to death before he’s transformed by the bite he got trying to be a hero.
In short, get a new angle, Intuit. Drop the dead presidents before the US becomes inured to the undead threat.
As an aside, this is the first video I ever captured from TV and uploaded to YouTube. I’m ashamed that I went to the trouble, come to think of it.
*Jackson’s bank policy is looking mighty attractive now, aren’t they?
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