Friday, May 20, 2005

THE CASH IN RINGTONES IS ABSURD

When we saw the "new " Crazy Frog advert was advertising in a break half-way through Corrie, ITV's most pricey slot, we turned to each other and asked "How many of the bloody things must they be expecting to sell to make that worthwhile?" And when it turned up in the next break, and the next, and the next, we got slightly scared. We're used to adverts up the other end of the EPG filling up with "text Sweet1 for the ringtone, text Sweet2 for the poly..." ads, but to see such a swamping of the mainstream channels with these ads is quite crushing - presumably about 75% of the nation's GDP is going to be generated by the noise of a stupid kid pretending to be a motorbike this year. It seems, though, that we're not the only ones to have seen the advert once too often: the Advertising Standards Authority have received hundreds of calls from viewers begging them to make it stop.

The advert doesn't even make any sense - "the crazy frog is back in town and on the run"? But if it's on the run, why has it come back into town? Why doesn't it go somewhere else? And if it;s trying to avoid someone, why doesn't it shut the fuck up?


5 comments:

Simon said...

Surely there's some mild gratification in the realisation that while it's swamping television in a way the original never did and making clear that the making of actual music is barely the point any more, they've not even got the release date of the single correct.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

I think that worries me more - the whole advertising push is so poor, if it was for any other product it would be laughed off the shelves. Imagine flogging biscuits like that...

Anonymous said...

My only hope is that Jamster is spending itself into an early grave, or that it's a plot by the BBC to entice viewers back - "Guaranteed Frog-Free!"

Anonymous said...

well i can not get my head around why people actually would want that on there phone - and we all thought the nokia tune was bad?????

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

I love the idea that maybe the BBC are funding the Frog as an underhand advertising campaign...


And I think there's a very good point there - somebody is making a fortune out of these ringtones, but who on earth would put a crazy frog on their handset?

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