The Irony of Terry Tate
Reebok’s “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” was widely seen as one of the best Superbowl commercials last Sunday. Unfortunately for Reebok, people aren’t necessarily associating the commercial with the brand. In fact, it seems that more people remember the name of Terry Tate’s company (Felcher and Sons) more than the real-life company the ad was for. According to ESPN.com, only 55% of people could recall that Reebok made the spots. And while Budweiser or Nike can get away with advertising in that vein, Reebok cannot. They’re in danger of falling victim to “That’s a Spicy Meat-a-ball Syndrome,” in which people remember commercials, but not the company behind them. (Alka-Seltzer, if you were wondering.) Other Superbowl commercials to exhibit this syndrome include that “Herding Cats” commercial (Electronic Data Systems) and the one where wolves chased a marching band all over the football field (Cyberian Outpost, which was bought out, downsized, and sold).
The other irony, however, is that people are decreasing their productivity by spending time at work downloading a commercial that shows the disastrous effects of decreased productivity.