Creative people in South Africa are currently fawning over the latest effort for Santam featuring noted actor Sir Ben Kingsley, or at least someone who resembles him. The celebrated star of the movie Ghandi only makes an appearance at the end of the commercial, although we are led to believe otherwise.
I, of course, take a contrarian view. I ask "what's the point?" First off, the commercial opens on the actor's look-alike but we are not supposed to know he is a look-alike at this point. He is extolling the virtues of real things as apposed to imitations. He waffles on in this pretentious vein for the first half of the 60-second epic set on a magnificent stretch of what I think is the Western Cape coastline. And then reaches the point..."like your insurance."
So, now we know what we are dealing with - a commercial for an insurance company. Time to leave the TV and go and make some tea. Because, let's face it, whether it's Ben Kingsley, a look-alike or Ghandi himself, why should we believe an actor (no matter how well known), or a look-alike, or the Mahatma himself when it comes to insurance? No reason.
Finally, at the end of the commercial the "creative bit" appears. A group of Ben Kingsley look-alikes gather on the beach and our lead actor asks "So, is your insurance the real thing...?" Now the real Ben Kingsley steps out of the group, looks at his doppelganger, turns to us and asks "or does it merely resemble it?"
What a load of pretentious rubbish. The commercial gives us no reason to consider the advertiser apart from vague generalities about being the real McCoy as opposed to the opposition who presumably are not. But why should we believe Ben Kingsley about this? No reason. Is he an insurance expert? No. Does he know more about insurance than the rest of us? No. Does Santam "do" insurance better than anyone else. Not presumably. Is this good advertising? No. Or does it merely resemble it? No.
Pepole who advertise parity products would do well to study the famous Clause Hopkins Schlitz beer advertising from the early 20th century...they might learn something.
