Name That Tune

I watch a lot of the Golf Channel. Because the average age of people who watch this channel is about 55 and the median income of those people tends to be higher than most (meaning I fall outside not one but two of their key demographics), I end up seeing a lot of commercials for higher-end items. You could ask me all about retirement communities, investment opportunities or hover-round chairs and I could provide you with a lot of correct answers. But mostly the commercials are for luxury cars. I have seen more commercials for cars I am never going to be able to afford that one human should be subjected to in his lifetime. Lately the commercials I have seen the most have been for Lexus and I have to tell you they provoke a very strong reaction... to never want to buy one of these cars.

For those of you who haven't seen the newest campaign it unfolds as such: it's Christmas morning and spouses are going about surprising their trophy husbands and/or wives with a new car. To do this they have come up with (or, most likely, they have paid someone to come up) various creative ways to play the Lexus jingle, which tips off the person to run outside and admire their shiny new car under the over-sized Lexus bow which has become almost as famous as their front hood logo. So far the methods to sneak the jingle in during the commercials have included playing it as elevator muzak, as the tune in a music box and as a new cell-phone ring. It may seem a little far-fetched, but I guess when you are rich enough to buy someone a car for Christmas, paying a couple hundred extra to bribe the elevator guy isn't much of a stretch.

Now, advertising trying to sell products using people who I wouldn't want to ever hang out with is nothing new. (Currently AT&T is trying to sell phones by highlighting people who can't wait to tell everyone else how behind the times they are. I think I would rather have no cell phone than allow any of the people in these ads to call me.) I don't why it happened, because you would think that normally companies would want to be represented by people other people might value in society, but at some point in the last couple of years ads started to be filled up the worst kinds of stereotypes. I can only assume frat boys started taking more marketing classes when the financial bubble burst. Either way this marketing style has served to turn me away from more products than it has helped.

The general douche-ness that comes from a commercial like this aside, here's my biggest point of contention with these ads: who the hell knew Lexus had its own jingle? If these commercials weren't played so much I certainly wouldn't have known what I was supposed to be listening for. Also, it isn't like the music is particularly memorable. It's a few notes that do nothing to worm their way into your subconscious like other famous jingle in the past. It doesn't even have any words to memorize. Think about it like this: if I asked you to sing the Alka-Seltzer jingle, I'm willing to bet 80% of the population could come up with it in a heartbeat. If I played you the Lexus ditty and gave you 10 guesses I'd bet a large sum of money that same percentage of people would never come up with the right company. To assume people are that tuned in shows a level of arrogance you wouldn't expect from people who make cars that aren't much more than glorified Toyotas.