A public restroom. Dripping faucets. Double entendres. Another annoying pharmaceutical spot for medication that shrinks prostate glands? Nope, it’s for corporate polluter ExxonMobil. Scott G admires the photography while hoping the communications industry holds the big Ex up to ridicule.

If you watch any of the three major Sunday morning commentary shows, you see an annoying number of commercials for pharmaceutical products.

Actually, if you watch almost any news-related TV show, you’ll be inundated with messages about drugs designed to bring you up, let you down or slide you sideways.

So last Sunday morning, when a commercial began with a guy running from a vehicle to a public restroom, I naturally assumed it was for one of the 5-alpha reductase inhibitors that shrink the prostate, or one of the alpha-blockers that relax bladder muscles (isn’t it great what you can pretend to know just by using Google?)

But there was something odd about the female voiceover. The smarmy double entendres about “holding more” and “going” etc. were all on behalf of ExxonMobil.

WTF? Yes, the slimewads who gave us the huge disgusting environmental disaster involving the Exxon Valdez have the gall to create a commercial in which they brag about creating ships that carry even more payload.

The spot is nicely directed, beautifully lit and crisply edited. In fact, the entire production is just excellent. But the script sucks and the basic intent of the campaign is insulting in the extreme.

Memo to ExxonMobil: no, we have not forgotten. Please go now.

[tags]G-Man, Scott G, Communication Nation, advertising, marketing, pharmaceutical ads, ExxonMobil, ad rants[/tags]

About ScottG The G-Man

Scott G owns G-Man Marketing in Los Angeles (gmanmarketing.com), where he consults on marketing and sonic branding, creates cross-media advertising campaigns (print, broadcast, Net), produces radio commercials, and composes music and aural IDs for radio and TV spots. He's also partner in Golosio Publishing (songsandsoundtracks.com). © Scott G. (Note: The opinions expressed by The G-Man do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of this site or its publisher.) UNAUTHORIZED REPUBLICATION OF THIS CONTENT IS PROHIBITED UNDER U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAWS.

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