As I invested a lot of time watching the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament this weekend (in 2nd place going into the Final Four!), CBS showed the same 6 commercials over and over and over again. One of those was the “Fence Sitters” ad by NAR. The above commercial accomplished what it needed to – buyers are on the fence waiting to make a decision and NAR is there to help. Fine.

However, the strange thing about the commercial was the narrator’s lips. They were out of sync with the video. I swear. The quality of this version is poor, however, so it is hard to tell.

The commercial was shown so many times I became an expert on its contents. Apparently it is assumed that sports fans love repetition just like the athletes do when training so the same ads can be shown over and over during sports shows or programs and we lemmings just bob our heads

While tortured through a mind numbing do loop of these handful of commercials all afternoon I reached out through Twitter and Facebook and get feedback from others trapped in the same plight – a resounding agreement with my observation was returned.

By the way, do producers and clients of these things sit and watch the final cut?

I am not trying to bash NAR here – they are trying to help their membership with this ad series, which has clarity and is actually pretty good for a trade group.

Those lips though – they were out of sync – which pulls so much irony out of me from past NAR transgressions from their various chief “economists”, I fear I may have no more irony left. Still, as a trade group NAR seems to be on the right track as of late.


2 Comments

  1. Mark April 1, 2009 at 11:33 am

    No question -they’re out of sync.

    I run a small media company as well as a real estate market analysis company – the message may be sound, but the production quality is profoundly off the mark. You almost have to feel a bit sorry for the NAR – things just aren’t going well over there….

  2. Edd Gillespie April 1, 2009 at 8:12 pm

    Maybe it is dubbed over Spanish.

    But when has the message about buying from over there been anything other than that. This time they may be right. Anyway, if buyers are waiting on the outcome of crisis, who among us can tell ’em how long to wait.

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