IdeaVillage received some interesting press recently (HT: Mark R.). Along the lines of when VH1 named Slim Clip the "best infomercial of all time", Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King) has named ShoeDini, "The Most Obnoxious Commercial. Ever." But he means it in a (sort of) flattering way.
In his most recent column for Entertainment Weekly (not posted online yet), King writes:
"The good ones [commercials] are fine ... but what I really like are the obnoxious ones, and the more obnoxiouser, the better. I collect them the way that some people collect stamps. Drives my wife bughouse, but any adman worth his bonus will tell you the spots that really sell are the ones that drive you crazy, and (being more than half crazy to begin with) those are the ones that I admire."
After nods to Aspray ("the lady who sprays it up her skirt is priceless"), Snuggie and HeadOn (you'll "hang yourself in the shower JUST TO MAKE IT STOP"), King comes to his point:
"The perfect obnoxious commercial must sell a product no one needs, and ShoeDini fills the bill superbly in this regard. I mean, it's a shoehorn, for the love of God. One with a long handle ... You say shoe stores give shoehorns away for free? Yeah, but ... this is a shoehorn on a stick!!!!"
But King's biggest 'praise' is reserved for this DRTV spot's voice talent:
"The best thing about ShoeDini is the galaxy-destroying voice of Gilbert Gottfried, who is already wanted in 15 countries for giving us the Aflac duck ... During the commercial, you can actually feel tortured brain cells screeching their last as that vocal buzz-saw rips ever deeper into your cerebral cortex, destroying resistance the way Liquid-Plumr destroys clogs in your bathroom drain ... If we had Gilbert Gottfried in World War II, Hitler would have given up in 1942."
Funny stuff. When the now infamous decision to use Gilbert for ShoeDini was made, I was one who argued against it. I didn't think it would help sales and worried it could actually hurt sales. The counter-argument, which won the day, was that it would generate buzz (check) and "cut through the clutter." Well, it appears Stephen King agrees. What better way to cut through the clutter than with a "vocal buzz-saw"?
