probabilityfields

If you watch TV at all (but don’t have TiVo) then you’ve probably seen the dude pictured at right in such great advertising campaigns as the Capital One spot with David Spade saying ‘No’, or the recent HEB ads (Texas residents only).

The dude’s name is Nate Torrence, and almost unbelievably, he’s become a kind of celebrity of TV commercials. It’s nothing new for someone in one commercial to be recognized for being in another commercial, or for someone to be famous for being in a commercial (Where’s the Beef? Lady, Maytag Repair Man, etc.), but Torrence’s comedic personality has allowed him fame independent of the commercial; a new phenomenon, to the best of my recollection. His talent has not gone unnoticed by Hollywood types either, landing him a role in the upcoming Adam Sandler movie Click.

So what possible cultural impact could a doofus in a bunch of commercials have? Well, for one, it’s pretty damn interesting, and kinda scary, that someone could actually do this. And the most compelling manifestation of the consequences of this kind of fame can be found in his latest commercial for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which you’ve probably seen if you’ve been watching March Madness. The spot follows the same formula as all their other corny-ass commercials with one difference, Torrence. His presence makes it impossible to tell if the commercial is supposed to be sincere or funny, so it becomes brilliantly ironic. The weirdest part is that the commercial appears alongside Capital One, HEB, and the more familiar Enterprise spots. The people that made this ad are either very stupid, or geniuses.

Aside from creating new postmodern aesthetic categories, Torrence should also be interesting to all you marketing people and television fans out there going nuts about the looming advertising crisis facing television with the advent of the TiVo/Video iPod [wHat'S thE dEAl w/raNdOm CAPitAl LettERS?!] generation. The suggested solutions for this crisis offered up by media commentators have been either stale or apocolyptic: “More product placement in popular television shows,” or “We’re all gonna die because no one will sponsor Lost!!!!!” I predict instead that a bold generation of ad execs will step forth to make commercials that we want to watch, that we want to TiVo, that we want to download [Not me though].

Basically, instead of having the castaways on Lost find a crate full of delicious Philadelphia Cream Cheese and talk about how delicious it is, the new intern at the office in the Philadephia Cream Cheese commercial will impress the boss by spreading some on a bagle just before losing his balance and inadvertantly making copies of his bare ass, seriously jeopardizing the Danielson Account. “Not the Danielson Account!” we would all exclaim [not me though], “Davey worked so hard to build that Philadelphia Cream Cheese sculpture to win the Danielson Account last week!”

[Advertising Tip: People hate work, so make a commercial that pokes fun at office culture and BAM, you got a hit!]

Okay I know this sounds a bit ridiculous to most of you. You’re swearing that you’d never be entertained by a commercial, but what if Volkswagen gave Tarantino a few million to make a series of spots that would premiere each week and run that full week for ten weeks? Tell me you wouldn’t want to watch that. Seriously, if it was really good; if it made you say, “Wow, I can’t believe they let them do that in a commercial.” And the real question is: wouldn’t you want to download your own free copy of each spot? Why the hell not?

So if you want to stop the advertising crisis you have to do two things:
1) Flip the product placement paradigm. Bring entertainment to the products, not the product to the entertainment.
2) Exactly what the advertising industry has done for decades: recuperate rebelliousness and use it to sell.

[New Advertising Tip: Make a commercial that pokes fun at commercials that poke fun at office culture, BAM, you got a hit!]

Now send me some money you fucking PoMo bastards!