Favorite Audio Ad

Several years back there was an ad I found visually very stunning (great photography) but conceptually, I just did't get the point. It was the Red Rose or was it Cello? ad with Mark Levinson, a naked woman and an apple as props. Now what the hell any of this has to do with an audio product, I haven't exactly figured out. On the other hand it got my attention. Then again on the other hand I don't remember nor care what they were selling, a subliminal message maybe is the point? Was it effective in selling product? Maybe someone on the inside could enlighten us. It ran for quite a while so it must have worked to some degree.

Kurt I also have tried to figure out who that ad is appealing to. Certainly not an audiophile but maybe a man or woman that is attracted to the photo of the lovely young woman in her upscale barren loft apartment? My reaction was, I'll bet that room has a lively ring.

I remember the ad Tubegroover mentions. It get my vote too. It is actually bad marketing. We remember the woman, not the product. Mr. Wipple was not pretty, but we all remember the product. That's good marketing.

Recent Pepsi ads. I can't really remember what they sell in them, could be a drink??? I don't know. Great Ass though.

SORRY!!!! I did it again! TYPO above in that last one. Please replace a 'd' for that 's', should read "great ads though" The letters are so close on the keyboard. SORRY!
Thanks,
Chris

hahahahhehehahaehah funny type ;)

oh the irony i forgot the "o"

I used to enjoy the tape ad (think that it was TDK) with the man seated in a chair with his hair being swept back from the sound. I beleive that this was an award winning ad and was done as print as well as television..

i was selling a sonic frontiers tube amp a while back and i took a picture of myself lying naked over the tubes, my dainty feet up in the air in joy and ecstacy of the music, surrounded by red roses and champagne glasses half-full. well, besides being horribly burned by the tubes (my buddy turned it on as a joke) it seemed that no one really appreciated good taste because i never got one response. ever. excecpt from the police.

Hey Dekay
That tape ad was for Maxell, and the year it was done - I think it was 1979, it won every advertising award there was.
A classic

Yes, it was Maxell. I used TDK back then, which now barfs.

Anything by Cambridge Soundworks, Bose and B&O - I laugh for weeks.

Kublakhan: Did you say/write something (my heterosexual male persona must have blocked it out:-)? But I am sensing these really strange images.

I must confess, I have the "Blown Away" ad copied as a 60" poster, framed and tagged to the wall about my rig. It is a guilty pleasure. I thought that it was Life imitating Art, or Art entertaining music, or something. Dale

I like the speaker ad from a year or two ago for some modest Brit speakers, AR I think? But the sexy naked profile of the female model walking past the speakers, that was NOT modest--very cool! To hell with the speakers, I want to meet the woman. It's like Ridgid Tool calendars, you don't buy the calendar to see the tools, you know? We need more High End Audio cheesecake, lol....

In response to Evansdad's post - To paraphrase a very funny, current TV ad: "We doooo, don't we"? AlbertPorter are you listening? C'mon. Youdaman. Wow. Cheesecakeaudio.com

Gotta say the new Adcom pre/pro ooh-aah red-lip deal makes me want to check into some home theater stuff/things. Very provocative. You know, stuff'n'things, surround etc.

The Maxell ad seems like the complete antithesis to the Paradigm ad I mentioned in the initial post - an ad that demonstrates that Maxell understands EXACTLY who they're selling to. No doubt that that was great advertising.

The easiest job in the world has to be to put together an ad to appeal to men that involves an attractive woman. I mean, how much do you get paid to be an advertising exec who thinks that up? Advertising on so many fronts has gotten so creative, and somebody still makes a living coming up with that.

The other "flavor" that I can never comprehend is the ads for audio equipment that relentlessly shows the owner of the company - Krell, Martin Logan and Polk all come to mind. Boy, that adds a lot to my understanding of what you're trying to sell me!

In an advertizing class I had in college, we learned "When the business starts to flounder, include a picture of the founder".

A recurring problem in audio ads, IMO, is the poor representation of musical instruments and musicians. How many times do we have to see a clarinet or a saxophone with the mouthpiece (reed) upsidedown? Worse yet, a "musician" "playing" the instrument with the mouthpiece upsidedown? Or a "trumpet player" (model) holding the instrument with hand position reversed? Or an "oboist" reading music on a stand that upon close scrutiny turns out to be a piano score? Or a cheap, student grade clarinet used to advertize a multikilobuck preamp? It is surprising to me that manufactures don't pay more attention to this sort of detail, which although perhaps most obvious to musicians, would lend the ad a much more credible air. On a more positive note, Cardas ads come to mind as some of my favorites.