Have you seen Tim & Eric before? If not, shame on you. If you have, and didn’t like it, shame on you too. Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim starting from 2007 to 2010, and my heart is in shambles that it’s no longer in production. I gained immense amounts of respect for GE Lighting when I saw the article about the company using Tim and Eric’s genius for a new “infomercial” for their new light bulb, called Link. Apparently, the writer of said article has no clue what Tim and Eric’s style is all about (awkward, uncomfortable, and generally weird). The fake infomercial, which an almost-naked Jeff Goldblum stars in, states reasons why people need this new light bulb, the most pressing reason seeming to be to make sure you don’t look ugly in traditional lighting, or to stay attracted to your non-famous, average looking spouse. To me, the advertisement is genius, because I love Tim & Eric, and I love awkward, weird humor.
This Tim & Eric style fake infomercial is completely different than GE’s past commercials, ranging from an artistic approach to how a child sees their mother’s work at GE to another one that’s about an idea that it’s ignored and swatted away, until GE finds it and lets it flourish. The question is, why did GE go for a more humorous approach? Forget the type of humor, but why did GE go from more emotional commercials to comical ones? Perhaps they wanted to be relevant to a different crowd of people, different age groups, and different demographics.
When comparing the more emotional, artistic commercials to the Tim & Eric styled fake infomercial, it’s important to remember that the commercials are focusing on different aspects of GE as a company. The artistic ones are trying to
make GE seem very creative, accepting, and innovative, while the fake infomercial is actually selling a product, and not GE’s positioning.
Do you think this advertising idea works for GE, or not? Would it have been a smart idea for the company to stick with one style of commercial, or do you like the diversity of the company?
Loyola Digital Advertising [로욜라 디지털 광고] 
Various types of advertisements show the different sides of a company. By using a varied approach, marketers can target different consumers, who for different reasons might all buy the same product. Also, watching the same advertisement repeatedly is boring, I am more likely to pay attention to an ad I’ve never seen before even if it is for an existing product.
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I personally like when a campaign sticks with one idea or “style.” The Allstate Mayhem commercials come to mind, a wonderfully entertaining set of commercials, all cohesive and obviously from the same campaign. I feel that it makes it a more seamless and clean looking campaign.
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As a fan of the show, I was really excited to see this ad. Jeff Goldblum is the perfect creepy old guy, and the light is actually pretty cool. Ads like this can exist because they aren’t put everywhere-if this was on national television and other huge media, GE would have some issues….
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