SalesGenie.com Brings Unusual Diversity to Super Bowl Ads

Congratulations to the New York Giants, champions of Super Bowl XLII. Their 17-14 win was the only televised act last night that was more of an upset than the SalesGenie.com commercials. (Your views on Emmitt Smith's broadcasting abilities may change your opinion on this.)

SalesGenie.com apparently decided their milquetoast ads from previous events weren't getting the job done and eschewed quality advertising goals for shuck'n'jivin' their way through two of the most ridiculous and blatantly offensive stereotype-laden commercials since Amos'n'Andy shilled for Campbell's Soup.

Of course, this dot com bust in waiting must have felt any publicity would be good publicity when they decided to show these two ads, depicting Indians and Chinese as cartoonish cartoons. (Note: While the former commercial could have also targeted Pakistanis, do you think the ad geniuses at SalesGenie.com know the difference? Or care?)

Still, good for SalesGenie.com and Fox for allowing us to revel in this footnote of television advertising history, much like SalesGenie.com will be a footnote in Internet business shortly. This kind of 'diversity' surely allows us to remember SalesGenie.com.

In that spirit, let's give them a few more commercial ideas they can break out for the Daytona 500 in a couple weeks. After all, I'm sure their demographics work show that Southerners loved the Super Bowl commercials and will eat these new ones up. (Note: Demographics work may have consisted of Dukes of Hazzard rerun marathon.)

• The Sales Genie himself pops into the frame to comfort a Native American in full traditional dress with a single tear trickling down his weathered cheek. In a fantastical Middle Eastern accent, the Sales Genie asks the poor "Injun" what's wrong. The Native American fellow is sad because he can't find any sales targets for his "scalping" business. Both men have a good chuckle about that. The Sales Genie shows the Native American SalesGenie.com inside the Native American's teepee, revealing that 100 free sales leads will help lead him to "right happy success, and how!" The Sales Genie hands the Native American a bottle of firewater with the SalesGenie.com logo on it, which is the last shot of the ad.


• A man in a white sheet with a pointy white hood looks into the camera and bemoans the fact that he hasn't been able to participate in a good "final sales pitch" in a long time. His African-American neighbor appears at the door, sounding for all the world like Jar Jar Binks and looking like a character from Song of the South. The African-American gentleman shows his berobed friend SalesGenie.com, which offers to help this man 100 free "targeted sales leads for his entire clan." The man in the sheet reads the leads off the computer screen and declares these new leads "hot, hot, hot!" As he exclaims this, we can see through his living room window that a cross bursts into flame on the lawn across the street. Both men pat each other on the back as the African-American man offers a huge smile to the daughter of the man in white.


• The Sales Genie makes another appearance, this time on his home turf in the Middle East. A fellow living in a cave is stroking his long beard and sighing. The Sales Genie asks the Middle Eastern man why he's so glum. Apparently, this man is "fresh out of targets" and really needs new leads so he can build his organization. The Sales Genie makes a computer appear with a hand crank on the side. The Middle Eastern gentleman gives it a few good cranks and SalesGenie.com magically appears, offering to give 100 free leads to "each chosen man in your organization". The Middle Eastern man claps his hands like a small child and declares SalesGenie.com to be "the bomb!" Both men have a good laugh over that tagline.
  

Again, we're happy to help SalesGenie.com down this road they seem to wish to travel. In a couple years, perhaps we can offer the executives at SalesGenie.com 100 ideas of what they can go do with themselves. Good luck!

Article Author: Tuffy

Tuffy cares about you. While others have neglected you, Tuffy has not forgotten you. Just lie back and think of Tuffy. Tuffy keeps his work at Refrigerator Logic at 40 degrees F.

Visit Tuffy's author page — Tuffy's Blog