Over the next year, Yahoo! is spending $100 million (!!) to boost its image around the world. Apparently, they want to revive their brand in countries like the U.S., and they want to gain traction for the first time in other parts of the world.
Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but personally, I think of Yahoo! as a search engine, a place to sign up for instant messaging, and the home of two fantastic pop music columns….
Okay… a quick surf just reminded me that Yahoo! also hosts Flickr. But whatever. Of all the things I listed, the music columns are the only ones I actually utilize on a regular basis.
I guess this makes me the prime target for the Yahoo’s branding revitalization. After the jump, you can see the first commercial that supposed to get me hollerin’. Will it work?
This commercial is really alluring. The colors pop, the bits with the dancers are neat, and I always love a gun that shoots rose petals.
But at this point, I’m not sure what Yahoo! is trying to sell me, exactly. Since this is the first part of a lengthy rollout, I guess they’re prepping me with a concept… a concept that I will soon have unfettered control over my Yahoo! account. That soon enough, Yahoo! will make sure I have a gun that shoots rose petals.
I’m intrigued to see what the company is talking about. If the next spot is more specific, then I’ll probably remember the service it describes.
But will I use those services? I just don’t use the internet this way. I don’t personalize my Google page. I don’t use the Genius bar on iTunes. I used to have a weather bug that would pop up and tell me the temperature right outside my window, but it annoyed me, so I deleted it. If Yahoo! is trying to tell me that I should spend time constructing “my” account, then I can save them the trouble. I’m never going to put any effort into doing that.
I don’t have an explanation for my apathy. I certainly personalize my iTunes playlists and my Facebook page, but maybe that’s enough, you know? Maybe I don’t need to spend more time tailoring the internet to my exact specifications.
I feel like I’m poking around the edges of a larger question here, but I can’t quite get at it. What are your responses to this Yahoo! ad? To this topic in general?







4 responses so far ↓
1 LB // Sep 29, 2009 at 11:38 am
Here’s a fairly off-the-cuff thought, which isn’t particularly erudite but alas…
It seems as if old-man Yahoo is trying to surf the newest wave of webmania, which has been created by younger social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and all the other nonsensically-named sites of similar purpose. More and more people are constantly plugged into the internet (thanks to i-Phones), and there is an increasing interest in constructing online identities and personae by people of all ages and interests. Perhaps the very strong desire many of us have to feel we are part of a community is what Yahoo is trying to tap into, since other web media firms have been so successful.
As much as I participate in this phenomenon (ahem, which is right now, when I should be doing a large number of other tasks), it sometimes gives me pause. Is it better to operate in the real, rather than virtual, world? I often feel that if I spent as much time cultivating relationships offline as I did online (email, FB, though I don’t yet tweet), I might be a much happier person. Maybe that’s part of the unease you’re feeling, Mark?
2 Mark Blankenship // Sep 29, 2009 at 11:51 am
I think that’s part of it LB. I get a real sense of community from The Critical Condition and Facebook, but I don’t want to develop so many online lives that I lose touch with the real world.
As someone who DOES tweet, FB, e-mail, and blog, I also just don’t WANT another personalized portal. There’s only so much I can focus on.
3 InfoMofo // Sep 29, 2009 at 11:55 am
This ad reminds me that I know nothing about advertising.
When I was a kid I remember seeing Dow Chemicals commercials. A lot of them, to the point that I have the catchy hook stuck in my head “’cause DOOOOOOWWW lets you do great things!” Great hook. What the fuck did I just watch?
These were not ads for Ziploc bags, or Scrubbing Bubbles. This was an ad for the broad umbrella company Dow Chemicals. Like this Yahoo ad, they would have random pictures of countrysides and maybe a technician with goggles, and none of them would be extolling the virtue of a yellow-and-blue-make-green baggie seal. They would be generally assuring you that this giant corporation that controls everything without you knowing about it is not evil, and you should go back to watching your numbing TV.
That’s the same feeling I get watching this ad. Why are they showing me these pretty pictures without telling me what to buy? This isn’t telling me that their search engine is good or their flickr service is highly rated, it’s just putting their name in my face.
I’m sure it tests well and it has some impact on red lines in a board room, but I have no idea what I just watched.
4 InfoMofo // Sep 29, 2009 at 11:57 am
Of course, we’re talking about it >< So I guess it did something.
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