It wouldn’t/doesn’t inspire me to rush out and buy cameras. The message is too grim to make me feel at all willing to release the purse strings.
In fact the the further away fom that kind of landscape that I could get, the better! Takes me straight back to that shack in the Blair Witch Project woods. Better use a little light sex if they want to sell cameras to folks like me, the camera being more likely to happen than the sex, so consolation prizes pop in as attractive alternatives. You know: cameras, Porsches, Corvettes… but wait, wouldn’t those latter help?
Rob, I don’t think the sex angle is going to work for Leica. It may fall into the Statements You’ll Never Hear category like…”Well, y’know, I’m a recovering narcissist” which would be “I get laid much more since I switched to Leica.”
Finny
Ingenious!
I do not see this as a commercial, but rather as a statement on life as such. As a soulful review of life, of what is important in life….
Reflection on the essential.
Even in this somewhat rotten time…. hit exactly my feeling. Great!
Everything that companies do is driven by sales; there is nothing else: from charity events to billboards, they are all part of exactly the same thing.
Not all advertisements are directly engaged in the selling of widgets. There is a class of ad called “institutional” which is largely engaged in peddling general good feeling towards the ad buyer.
When you see an ad for Raytheon or Boeing during the Sunday Morning Political Talking Head shows, they are not expecting you to set your channel clicker down, pick up your cell phone, and order a weather satellite or attack helicopter.
Of course not, Tamara, that’s kinda obvious; but they are hoping some government official with some power many be watching, somewhere, and negotiate an order on behalf of their country… even The Dominican Republic is contemplating building a wall with its neighbours on Hispaniola; patrolling a new fence would be a great possible market for those choppers, though getting paid may prove a problem.
Direct sell or subliminal, ’tis all the same: to shift product or service. However, cutting taxable income is also a strong incentive. It’s why some of us bought new equipment, even if we had more than enough in the armoury already. Giving your money to governments to spend badly is not an attractive motivator towards altruism.
Money is always a company’s bottom line, its raison d’être. Spreading warm, cosy glows is just another marketing device. You know, like hopefully kissing wealthy old aunts?
😉
Daniel Castelli
I thought is was an LL Bean or an Old Town Canoe Advert. I can buy a LL Bean Subie, so why not a Leica digital do-dah.
Just saying…
Dave Baker
I really appreciated this ad and found it very moving. I’ve seen numerous ads over the years, promoting Leica’s quality and durability. This one reminds the viewer what those qualities provide in a throw-it-away world. I ‘ve been using Leica Ms since 1970 and have gone through more rolls of Kodachrome than I can count. Also, four digital cameras that have bit the dust. I recently lost my 96 year old dad and am today enjoying the wonderful moments with him captured on those Kodachromes with an M4. It’s the old “quality is remembered long after price is forgotten” theme. As Finney stated above, it is a reflection on the essential. To me, this is the most convincing Leica ad I’ve ever seen.
So far, I’ve only lost one digital camera to failures: a locked-mirror. It can’t be repaired because it’s too old (D700) and ironically, of the two digitals that I own, the older D200 is still working. Even more ironically, the D700 was sedom used after I realised that I liked the 50mm on the smaller-sensored D200. So the failure can’t even be blamed on too much use. I sometimes wonder whether I did something out of sequence, but as it’s not a Hassy 500 Series, perhaps that’s impossible.
I still have an almost unused F3 which lives in splendid solation, and hasn’t been used since about 2007.
Should the D200 fail, then I would be faced with a quandry: I have a lot of Nikkor lenses, but secretly fancy a digital Leica. That being the case, and my pockets sewn pretty tightly shut, perhaps it would be time to stop completely and do something else.
Pretty poor timing on this commercial….pandemic and all.
Gloomy, at best.
It wouldn’t/doesn’t inspire me to rush out and buy cameras. The message is too grim to make me feel at all willing to release the purse strings.
In fact the the further away fom that kind of landscape that I could get, the better! Takes me straight back to that shack in the Blair Witch Project woods. Better use a little light sex if they want to sell cameras to folks like me, the camera being more likely to happen than the sex, so consolation prizes pop in as attractive alternatives. You know: cameras, Porsches, Corvettes… but wait, wouldn’t those latter help?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0o0QO2riY
Rob
Rob, I don’t think the sex angle is going to work for Leica. It may fall into the Statements You’ll Never Hear category like…”Well, y’know, I’m a recovering narcissist” which would be “I get laid much more since I switched to Leica.”
Ingenious!
I do not see this as a commercial, but rather as a statement on life as such. As a soulful review of life, of what is important in life….
Reflection on the essential.
Even in this somewhat rotten time…. hit exactly my feeling. Great!
Everything that companies do is driven by sales; there is nothing else: from charity events to billboards, they are all part of exactly the same thing.
Not all advertisements are directly engaged in the selling of widgets. There is a class of ad called “institutional” which is largely engaged in peddling general good feeling towards the ad buyer.
When you see an ad for Raytheon or Boeing during the Sunday Morning Political Talking Head shows, they are not expecting you to set your channel clicker down, pick up your cell phone, and order a weather satellite or attack helicopter.
Of course not, Tamara, that’s kinda obvious; but they are hoping some government official with some power many be watching, somewhere, and negotiate an order on behalf of their country… even The Dominican Republic is contemplating building a wall with its neighbours on Hispaniola; patrolling a new fence would be a great possible market for those choppers, though getting paid may prove a problem.
Direct sell or subliminal, ’tis all the same: to shift product or service. However, cutting taxable income is also a strong incentive. It’s why some of us bought new equipment, even if we had more than enough in the armoury already. Giving your money to governments to spend badly is not an attractive motivator towards altruism.
Money is always a company’s bottom line, its raison d’être. Spreading warm, cosy glows is just another marketing device. You know, like hopefully kissing wealthy old aunts?
😉
I thought is was an LL Bean or an Old Town Canoe Advert. I can buy a LL Bean Subie, so why not a Leica digital do-dah.
Just saying…
I really appreciated this ad and found it very moving. I’ve seen numerous ads over the years, promoting Leica’s quality and durability. This one reminds the viewer what those qualities provide in a throw-it-away world. I ‘ve been using Leica Ms since 1970 and have gone through more rolls of Kodachrome than I can count. Also, four digital cameras that have bit the dust. I recently lost my 96 year old dad and am today enjoying the wonderful moments with him captured on those Kodachromes with an M4. It’s the old “quality is remembered long after price is forgotten” theme. As Finney stated above, it is a reflection on the essential. To me, this is the most convincing Leica ad I’ve ever seen.
So far, I’ve only lost one digital camera to failures: a locked-mirror. It can’t be repaired because it’s too old (D700) and ironically, of the two digitals that I own, the older D200 is still working. Even more ironically, the D700 was sedom used after I realised that I liked the 50mm on the smaller-sensored D200. So the failure can’t even be blamed on too much use. I sometimes wonder whether I did something out of sequence, but as it’s not a Hassy 500 Series, perhaps that’s impossible.
I still have an almost unused F3 which lives in splendid solation, and hasn’t been used since about 2007.
Should the D200 fail, then I would be faced with a quandry: I have a lot of Nikkor lenses, but secretly fancy a digital Leica. That being the case, and my pockets sewn pretty tightly shut, perhaps it would be time to stop completely and do something else.