June 29th, 2011
Dear Crest White Strips.
I recently watched one of your commercials featuring the advertising of Crest White Strips. In said commercial, an Actress, who is portrayed as a Professional Photographer, recommends that her clients use Crest White Strips in order to whiten their smiles prior to a photo shoot. It appears that the sole point of the commercial is to convey that the ‘Professional Photographer’, is giving her ‘professional opinion’ that Crest White Strips are her first choice for her clients to enhance the whiteness of their smiles. As a viewer of the commercial, I am lead to believe that actual ‘Professional Photographers’ actually recommend Crest White Strips. As I am not a ‘Professional Photographer’, I have to trust the opinion of the ‘Professional Photographer’ as presented in the commercial, because it is a ‘professional’ opinion (professional judgements are 100% accountable in court cases, mind you). I do not know how much more clear I can be that the commercial features the ‘professional’ opinion of a ‘Professional Photographer’, true?
Now with all that being said, as the actress says, “I’m a Professional Photographer...”, in captions on the bottom of the screen appear the words, “Actress, not a Professional Photographer.” Ok, stop. Hold up a minute. Let me get this straight. The entire point of the commercial was to create a scenario (which appears to be realistically portrayed as it is very candidly shot), where a Professional Photographer looks at the audience and givers her professional judgement on the valuation of Crest White Strips’ performance. But all of a sudden, you threw in that curve ball of caption to ensure the viewer knows that the ‘Professional Photographer’ who is so deliberately claiming that she is a ‘Professional Photographer’ is not actually a ‘Professional Photographer’, thus rendering whatever she says as a blatant untruth.
So now let me understand what you are trying to convey. You hired an actress to pretend to be a Professional Photographer and pretend to give a professional review so that you could make her say what you want? Can Professional Photographers not act? I’m sure out of the 150 Professional Photographers that live in North America, at least one of them took Drama Class in High School.
Now you may be responding with, “Well, we had to find a face that portrayed the Professional-Photographer-look that our target audience might link with Professional Photographers.” But wouldn’t it have just been simpler to hire a Professional Photographer? At least you would have avoided this extremely wordy complaint letter. Better yet, why didn’t you just hire a Professional Actress, who gives her professional opinion of Crest White Strips? I can see it all – “Hi, I’m a Professional Actress (caption on bottom of screen reads actual Professional Actress), and as a Professional Actress, my professional opinion of Crest White Strips is that they make my teeth whiter, which is preferable to my professional career as a Professional Actress.” There! Wasn’t that easy? And you avoided any creation of fake scenarios, where the Actress has to lie in order to get your point across. Also, if you’re wondering, I am currently available to work in your creative development department; I’ll forward my resume to you for your future reference.
Now that I know for sure that Professional Photographers definitely do not endorse Crest White Strips, I wonder what other professions do not also endorse it. Do Professional Airline Stewardesses not endorse Crest White Strips? Do Professional Zoo Keepers not endorse Crest White Strips? Do Professional Brand Managers not endorse Crest White Strips? I think you could run a whole campaign with different professionals, who all say, “I am a Professional (insert profession)...” then in captions below them, you could revoke their claims with “Actress, not an actual Professional (insert profession). Just think of all the different professionals you could feature! Professional Odour Testers, Professional Crocodile Wranglers and Professional Fountain Pen Repairmen could all be featured in your commercials through false representation!
Continuing on (I’m surprised you got this far), how now am I to trust any of the claims that you make within your commercials? Should I be constantly checking the fine print on your commercials, in case any claims you make are actually untrue? Overall, if you didn’t get what I was trying to oh-so-humbly say, it was this: Why would you make someone claim so blatantly what they are, when in captions it says that they aren’t who they are? Take a few minutes to read that one through to make sure you got everything. It’s just plain silly! And now I’ve lost faith in what you claim your product does and who recommends it. Seriously Crest White Strips, you honestly thought you could slip this one by?
I expect a prompt response from your Marketing Team. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Terry Ibele
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June 30th, 2011Thanks for your email, Terry.
Wow, that is a good point! We rely heavily on consumer comments regarding our advertisements, and feedback like yours will help us decide how to approach future advertising efforts. Please be assured I'm letting our Marketing Team know how you feel.
Thanks again for writing.
Paul
Crest Team
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CONCLUSION: Awwwwwww yeah!
