With the Super Bowl coming up Sunday, I always look forward to the commercials, hoping to see something new, innovative and a bit creative. Commercials lately are annoying me more than usual. For example, Glade candles have a series of ads where a woman lies to her friends when complimented on how wonderful her house smells. She is ashamed to tell them that she’s using a bargain candle, so she tells them, “It’s a French candle, from France.” (Video below) As she turns around, her friends pull the Glade sticker off her ass and they all have a hearty laugh about their deceptive friend who makes up stories to avoid admitting she uses this less expensive product.
When I see these commercials, I have to remind myself that Glade is paying for these commercials, and they’re hoping to sell some candles. Is Glade telling consumers, “If you can’t afford expensive candles, buy ours and lie about it to your friends, but we don’t encourage you to actually TELL your friends about our product and its affordability and quality.”
Does this make sense? In the current economy, why aren’t companies like Glade wanting to send a message to consumers that in spite of having to cut back, we can all still enjoy a few luxuries like buying candles and relaxing fragrances? I understand their point is to convince the consumer that their candles are just as good or better than more expensive ones, but if so, why lie about it? Is it really that shameful to find something valuable for less money? Saving money should be celebrated, and I think Glade’s marketing team has the wrong idea. This woman should be bragging to her friends how she dumped the expensive candles once she discovered Glade, and was still able to buy pretty smelling candles even on a budget.
As more and more people are forced to cut back and pay closer attention to their spending, I’m hopeful that words like “cheap” and “frugal” lose some of their negative connotations. I would love to see advertisers and marketing campaigns embrace this mindset of less is better, even when it comes to buying their products. Don’t they want us to brag about our purchases, and not be encouraged to lie about them because we’re ashamed of our friends knowing we use their products?
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