Head On, but not too direct

I was watching Jeopardy last night and as Johnny Gilbert took us out, the extro music was, as usual, interrupted by messages from the program’s sponsors. As anyone who’s watched Jeopardy recently (and is neurotic enough to pay attention to these things) knows, one of the products which departing contestants receive is something called “Head On”. Anyone who’s seen these ads will know what I’m talking about, but for those who haven’t, this is one of the most unique ad campaigns I’ve encountered. And by unique, I mean that, as a marketer, it frustrates me to no end.

They began by simply running a 13 second spot which repeated (for the entire time) “Head On – Apply directly to the forehead” again and again. That’s great, now the audience knows how to use it – but what does it do? I wondered. Happily, they updated the commercial by having an obviously frazzled and frustrated woman step out in front of the pictured screen shot and begin to address my frustration by mocking the announcer’s explanation of use. When I felt she was about to begin to explain what the product does, she simply made her love of the product known and then ended her rant. Again, no luck.
Based on the aforementioned woman in the commercial, and the fact that it’s applied ‘directly to the forehead’, I would assume that they’ve targeted this product to the every day person who is unable to get relief from headaches, but by not mentioning the product’s purpose, it’s really unclear whether this woman is suffering from a nagging headache, or just as annoyed with the commercial as I am at this point.

In a review of the ad by Slate Magazine, columnist Seth Stevenson spoke to Dan Charron, VP of Sales and Marketing for Head On who explains, “A good way to get attention, is to not say what the product does. It touches on people’s curiosity.” Stevenson continues, noting “Indeed—curiosity is what sent me to the HeadOn Web site, and it no doubt sent millions of other people there, as well. If some percentage of those people are headache sufferers, and also gullible, they might well be moved to buy some HeadOn.”

Fair enough. Play the curiosity card. But the fact remains, the consumer needs some touchpoint to learn what it is the product does. I don’t want to call Stevenson a bad journalist, or imply that he’s been blinded by his professed love of the spot’s attention grabbing techniques, but even the product’s website (which I’m assuming he never actually visited) goes out of its way to avoid mentioning the purpose of the product!!! If your point is to close the loop by building curiosity on television and driving people online, at some point, the consumer needs to know what this product does! All that the site provides is links to the many fine retailers which carry the product (as the commercial points out) and answers some questions about this over-the-counter medication which do not include ‘what is it used for?’.  Of course, none of these frequently asked questions include an answer to the simplest question of all – ‘what is this product used for’. As is usually the case in life, but should never be the case in advertising, I had to go to Wikipedia to confirm the product’s purpose.
The point is that Head On has created a commercial spot which, for better or for worse, is incredibly memorable which even goes as far as to educate the consumer on how to use its product. This is two great coups for a commercial producer. But while Meatloaf would tell you that “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”, in this instance that potential third factor – the product’s purpose – is unforgiveably absent. When speaking to a targeted audience, as Head On seems to be trying to do, what value does promoting your products name and operational instructions have when no one in your audience knows why they would ever need to use your product.

While I’ll credit the makers of Head On for a product which has a very logical name and an extremely memorable campaign, I would ask them to take their right hand, open their palms and, yep, you guessed it – apply directly to the forehead.

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