Land Rover’s recent commercial for the new Range Rover Evoque is getting a lot of attention –for its music, not the vehicle itself.

Is It Good Advertising?

Discussion forums and social media are asking the same questions: who sang the ad’s song, and where can you buy it (you can’t, it was created exclusively for the ad). The song’s popularity raises a couple of questions:

Is the song overshadowing the product?

Is this really good advertising?

For answers, I turned to the landmark Claude Hopkins book “Scientific Advertising”. Although it was written in 1923, it is still a “must-read”.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy wrote that “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life.”

Excerpts from “Scientific Advertising”

Claude Hopkins advocated a “no-nonsense” approach to advertising. Two of his main premises were:

Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want. That is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their parts. They forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause.

The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

Reaching The Desired Target Audience

As to the first point above, I think most people would agree that the Range Rover commercial is entertaining. The popularity of the ad’s music indication that it is. But according to Claude Hopkins, being entertaining is a fault. Could it be that the ad is reaching “those entertainment seekers (that) are little likely to be the people whom you want”? Does the music make it an ineffective commercial for its target market?

Is The Commercial Increasing Sales?

Regarding the second point, I do not have any information indicating how successful this ad has been in selling the new Range Rover Evoque. I doubt Land Rover will ever divulge that information. However, from a theoretical perspective, this appears to be an example of a soundtrack competing with the message instead of complimenting it.

Or perhaps times have changed and people actually buy a product because its commercial is entertaining. What do you think?

© 2019 David Biagini, all rights reserved.