Is there such thing as a ‘favourite price-comparison website advert’? It’s a bit like ‘favourite dictator’ or ‘favourite plague-carrying creature’ really isn’t it? The least of several evils or somesuch.
Still, I was curious as to whether it was possible to create something memorable and reasonably enjoyable – or ‘reasonably not irritating’ at least – so I created a poll to find out the UK’s favourite price-comparison adverts, and form what would almost certainly be the most incisive, wide-ranging, in-depth and analytical, er, analysis of the ads ever prepared – ever.
Something that works for the advertiser and doesn’t drive viewers to murderous, visceral hatred. Let’s face it, creating a price-comparison advert that doesn’t drive people to uncontrolled defecation several times a day is a massive win in these stakes.
With the number of votes nearing 100 I decided that the time was right to analyse the results. Well, that and the fact that I was quickly losing interest in the topic.
I had a feeling one would be way out in front, with the other three rooted to the foot of the table (to borrow a phrase used by every sports commentator when discussing Premiership football), with a sprinkling of ‘Fuck you! They all suck!’ responses – which are entirely reasonable under the circumstances – fighting it out with Confused.com and Go Compare.
But while I was correct on the first count – there was a runaway winner with over half of the vote – I was surprised that one of the competitors pushed the leader close for a long time before taking second place with almost one third of the total vote.
What does this tell us? Well, firstly it seems to tell us that people are indeed amused by – and fond of – Aleksandr Orlov, the Russian meerkat perpetually frustrated by idiot internetters mistaking his rodent-prostitution website for a price-comparison website.
For what it’s worth I think the CompareTheMeerkat adverts are by far the best of the bunch, with a clear message and clarity of brand and purpose. And a neat, amusing pun to boot. Well done to agency VCCP for achieving the seemingly impossible.
Runner-up was Omid Djalili’s efforts as Haggle Hero for MoneySupermarket adverts, a bonkers Iranian mithering unlikely celebrities for not trying to get better deals on their insurance.
I found the Nigel Mansell and John Prescott ads pretty good the first couple of times I saw them – the ads settling into a comfortable routine after some initially dubious first efforts – and the fact that Djalili’s arrival heralded the departure of that Peter Jones berk and his series of embarrassing ads raises it even higher in my eyes.
As Germaine Greer reportedly said of the Jones adverts: “I thought being rich meant you didn’t have to suck that kind of cock.” Nice one Germaine.
Third place was taken by Confused.com with its brilliant set of adverts featuring a swivel-eyed bouncing-breasted fruit loop warbling bad karaoke that makes everyone think it’s a dating service.
My thoughts are well-documented, but I will recount a conversation I recently had with someone who works at Confused.com – the gist of which is that everyone at Confused.com is well aware of how awful the ads are apart from the marketing department. Make of that what you will.
Second to the bottom were a series of responses that would normally comprise the ‘Don’t know’ option, but in this case comprised a kind of ‘Fuck you! They’re all shit!’ option. Fair enough.
And in last place – somewhat surprisingly to me – was poor old Gio Compario, the fat tenor, who finds himself in a series of unlikely situations singing operatically about price comparison websites.
Sheer overexposure? Is it time to kill off Gio? Hardly – while it’s possible to read something into the good results for CompareTheMarket.com and MoneySupermarket.com it’s less clear to discern whether people actually dislike the Confused.com or GoCompare.com adverts.
Perhaps they just don’t make as much of an impression; perhaps the adverts are disliked, though that doesn’t say much of their penetration; perhaps people are overfamiliar with them. And perhaps the people who are more inclined to like it are less likely to stumble across this website and vote for all sorts of reasons. They don’t use the computer; they don’t search the web; they didn’t find this website; they don’t search for bad adverts websites; SEO; blindness; mental derangement.
What I’m saying is that this is hardly scientific. Having said that I’m going to pretend it is, because a spot of own-trumpet-blowing never did anyone any harm.
So there you have it. Aleksandr Orlov – aka CompareTheMarket.com/CompareTheMeerkat.com – is the winner. Imagine the CGI meerkat receiving a golden turd mounted on fist with a single, middle, upraised finger. And Djalili getting a silver one. And Cara Confused having her stupid goggle-eyed head cleaved in two by a giant scythe.
And understand that I still hate them all.