Advertising So Good You Feel Guilty

Have you ever seen an ad or had a brand experience so good that you later felt guilty about not buying the product? I’ve got two great examples of this.

First up is the AMP Energy Walk of Shame commercial; I’m not sure if this was ever on broadcast TV but it was all over the web about a year ago. I’ve sent it to friends from college, shown it at the office and I still laugh every timeI see it, as do the people I show it to. It’s the clever nature of a musical commercial about something many people (I’m not admitting anything here!) have experienced that I love. They found a slice of life for their target audience that everyone jokes about, whether they’ve done it or not, something that is sort of a right-of-passage bond for people, especially if you went to college and lived in a dormitory.

I love this commercial, so much that I frequently feel guilty when I walk by AMP Energy at the grocery store for not buying it. I’m not a big energy drink guy (no coffee either) and only buy them for long drives, and then I buy Rockstar.

Moving on from the Walk of Shame, I posed the “so good you feel guilty” question to myself and came up with another. Three years ago, I was car shopping for the first vehicle I’d buy completely on my own. I am a self-professed car snob and I drove a lot of different cars in this quest, both new and used. I ended up at Northtowne Suzuki, in Kansas City North, looking at a used car (maybe a Focus, I can’t remember). The salesperson, Gary Flowers, brought me over to the new car area and had me get in a Suzuki Reno. Though its Suzuku’s lowest-priced car, the base model came with A/C, CD player, power locks, power windows and a pretty nice interior for the money. No, it wasn’t gorgeous but it wasn’t ugly either. No, it didn’t set my heart racing but it drove pretty well. And it came with a 10-year, 100,000 mile transferrable warranty, the best in the industry (Hyundai’s was the same but not transferable). Gary offered me that car for $10,400, brand new. I took it home for a night to try it out some more and thought long & hard about buying it. In the end, my car snobbery won out and I bought a used Mazda 6 for around $15,000 instead. But if not for that, I’d have bought that Suzuki in a heartbeat.

From the moment I walked in the door, Suzuki offered me a great brand experience. The salesperson listened to my needs/wants and appeased them, while steering me towards a great option they offered for new cars. He treated me, a 23-year old, slightly cocky car nerd, great and was open & honest throughout. The other dealership personnel were equally good. And the product delivered too. In the end, they did everything right but didn’t get the sale and that made me feel just a little guilty. But not that guilty, Gary sold me the Mazda.

So those are two of mine – have you ever seen advertising or had an experience so good you felt guilty not buying? Leave a comment and tell me about it.