Advertising

It was raining today and is still raining consistently tonight. It is a nice change, actually, to hear rain outside. I was wondering at lunch time if it was still raining, because Mike, who was working at the data center in NY state, said that it was snowing there. I couldn't immediately tell by looking outside, so I opened up weather.com and started looking at the details for Stamford. In case you were wondering, it was still raining. I had a look at the forecast for the next 10 days and that's when this guy appeared on the page:

My first thought was something like "Hahahahahaha!", with my second though being "Wow, Lowermybills.com really likes to splash out on their models..." I don't know if the expression on his face is just that of an elderly man, of someone who has just soiled themselves, fear of the camera or a combination of all of them. Then I started thinking about it - his photo made me look at the ad. It even made me take a screenshot of the ad. Then I even went as far as to read it before putting it on my blog. I stopped short of clicking on the ad or going to the website, but catching the eye, getting someone to read the ad - that almost achieved the goal of advertising. It generated awareness of the product, even if I didn't buy it.

Before I left work I checked to see if it was raining (in case you were wondering, it still was). Weather.com opened, along with a pop-up:

Same guy, same company, slightly different context. I personally think that the guy is awesome. He catches my eye and makes me want to know what his deal is. It seems that weather.com and lowermybills.com have found the way to advertise to me - with startled-looking old people. Now if they got this guy to dance to and sing the ice cream and cake song, or do what the dog below is doing, it would be the perfect way to sell absolutely anything to me.

Damn dog, I know what it means when they do that, but it gets me every time.