Be more imaginative about TV commercials

Watching television the other night, I came across a commercial of a hamburger restaurant (not McDonald's) which was reasonably well done with nice scenes and a refreshing looking cast. But the ad turned me off.

The commercial opens with an idyllic scene of a clean-cut young farmhand, wearing a broad smile, tenderly massaging an almost perfect looking cow standing restfully under a shed in what appears to be a manicured lawn rather than a rough pasture. The message is nice and clear, up to that point. The next scene shows the healthy young man taking a lunch break on a log munching a juicy hamburger with the voice over bragging about the quality of the beef from the cows in the background. I can't really think of a more callous way to sell a food product.

But then again, most TV commercials on mainland channels are unimaginative in style and mediocre in presentation. Some of them, especially those selling health supplements and mobile phones, are decidedly offensive. The mindset of the marketing people working at the domestic and foreign vendors on the mainland, and their advertising advisors, seems to have gone out of sync with that of the increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers, especially those in the large cities. Overcoming this shortcoming should be of particular significance to many Chinese vendors at a time when they need to vigorously push domestic sales to offset losses from dwindling export demand.