The mind can play all kinds of tricks on us, especially when it comes to food. In this piece, we’re taking a look at the new campaign by the advertising agency Romance to promote “Essentiel” French supermarket Intermarche own brand range of products. We’ll give this advert scores out of 10 for various advertising criteria. Check out our scores and see if you agree with our notes.
Memorability – 6 / 10
The ad is very colorful and fresh looking, but that’s not enough to sell a food brand. The concept is based on a clever idea of showing consumers the shocking science behind flavor and colors. This also falls right in line with the brands objective of highlighting their move away from synthetic coloring agents. That said, the ad really lacks any distinctive moments worthy of long-term memory.
Effectiveness – 7 / 10
We think the concept is quite clever and intriguing. The start of the ad does draw you in and makes you want to find out more. English speaking audiences will think the voice-overs and choreography is certainly lacking. It’s always better to create a purpose made ad for each country rather than trying to apply one clip across the globe. The lack of production quality means the brand loses credit, So although the subject and content is somewhat interesting, most viewers will have made negative pre-assumptions about the brand within the first few seconds.
Style – 6 / 10
Apart from the obvious voice over issues, the ad doesn’t look too bad at all. It’s light, refreshing and all elements of the content are portrayed clearly. It’s very easy to follow the story of the commercial and the message delivered is very easy to pick up; “we’re better without the unnecessary tampering”. This message plays well into the market for healthier eating and self-improvement. The issues with the style aspects of the ad are very clear too. The family is cliche and looks fake. No effort has been put into casting “normal” looking characters. The music and sound effects are old fashioned and the script itself is not attractive to a native English audience. It’s likely a lot of native English speakers will be changing the channel or blocking this clip out as soon as they see it come up.
Heart or Humor – 5 / 10
The ad lacks any serious emotional or comical impact, so it scores a very average rating in this area. Without humor or an emotional connection, there’s nothing for viewers to remember and there’s nothing to draw in their full attention. Only if you are forced to listen to the content will you realise that the notions depicted are actually rather relevant. The ad pushes health, genuine productions, and the negatives of product deception, but these themes are lost behind a blanket of low production quality.
Execution – 6 / 10
A concept that really deserved its own native English version. The producers clearly wanted to push maximum coverage with a limited budget, which almost always results in this kind of end product. The right message, but with the wrong delivery.
