advertising review

As a marketer, I am very aware that “it’s all in the spin” and that this industry often pushes the envelope on the messages used to promote products. It’s a personal thing I know, but I am very sensitive to what I feel is negative or disparaging messaging, and I see quite a bit of that which saddens, and even makes me angry at times. But I can’t remember when a commercial disgusted me so much by it’s complete lack of common sense, common decency, and humanity to the extent that it literally makes me sick to my stomach every time I see it.

Kayak’s most recent commercial showing a middle-aged man using his elderly and obviously fragile mother’s stairlift so that he can continue his vacation search not only flirts with complete stupidity for the totally inane concept, but it seems to blatantly condone what can only be considered elder abuse as he rides up the stairs past his mother struggling up the flight of stairs. I can’t even fathom a situation where this could be considered funny or remotely acceptable!

I can’t decide which I find more deplorable, the “professional” (in this case I’m really quite dubious that term applies) creative team who conceived the concept and sold it to the client, or the company representative(s) who approved it. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive, but I just don’t see how anyone could possibly think this would create a compelling campaign to make someone want to use Kayak’s service. Perhaps this is a case of corporate espionage and one of the competitors has a mole inside Kayak trying to ruin them. I certainly won’t be utilizing Kayak’s services and will do my best to discourage anyone I know from doing so as well.

I know that I am not alone in finding this commercial offensive, inappropriate, and downright inexcusable. I can only hope that there is enough outrage to impact their bottom line so they discontinue the disgusting commercial and seriously rethink their corporate values and approach to promoting their services!