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What were they thinking?

There's a lot to love about the new TV advert for the UK's electrical/electronic retailers of last resort PC World and Curry's.



The pastiche of Star Wars is rather well done. The landing craft is believable and there's some nice acting like the almost-entirely-suppressed wince when the manager's car is crushed. Darth Vader is pretty good too.

However, have they really thought through the picture this ad puts across? Here are the key messages I pick up:
  • Our shops are run by an evil empire - buy things here and you are funding evil
  • Our training involves fear and peril
  • Our attitude to customer service takes its lead from Darth Vader, a (fictional) mass murderer and war criminal
  • Our staff are massed mindless automata of a controlling state
  • We are the bad guys
All in all, is this really the image that they want? Back to the drawing board, I think.

The version shown is the 'Director's Cut' which is slightly longer than the advert as broadcast
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Comments

  1. Pelotard24 November 2011 at 09:45

    This is parody, done masterfully. But it's a devil to use in marketing: some people won't pick it up, many people won't have seen the original, and in general, I would never use it for a broad consumer audience. If my target group is gadget-lovers, male, aged 25-50, no problem.

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