National radio ads that should be better by AudioPoo

Here is the proof that radio is treated as a poor relation to TV by some advertisers, or their agencies.

A national prime-time campaign for Seat employs a gabbled over-filled script, an actual fanfare with a "not yet!" false start 'gag' and a whopping 10 seconds of high-speed 'small-print'. In fact it's for a specific Seat car, but I only picked up the name "Leon" on the 3rd listen!

Right from the start the gabbling voice sounds like he's reading the words "yadda yadda" repeatedly rather than talking about winning an award for the 3rd time. If the director wanted the style of an 'ordinary bloke' reading aloud a classified newspaper ad to someone else in the room then they got it - but they've missed the magic and potential of the medium.

As for the small-print - that is always a blur, so the more of it there is the more it sounds like you are whispering something the audience are supposed to ignore - but ultimately sounds dodgy as a result.

You can put some of those conditions in the body of the script by just talking honestly about what's involved with the offer, and not making big claims that need big substantiation.

It absolutely SHOULD be better than this!