Bose campaign tries to show great sound

This campaign includes a TVC (below) and a targeted, influencer-led social-media campaign, according to the agency.

Here's the TVC:

Effective as this work may be, ads for headphones, like ads for TVs, always strike Ad Nut as a bit strange. They go out of their way to sound/look absolutely mind-blowing. But of course the listener/viewer can't experience the supposedly superior audio/visual capabilities of the product in question, unless they already happen to own it and are using it at that very moment—in which case the ad is moot. If a TV supposedly produces the blackest of blacks and a superior contrast ratio, but you're looking at a simulated picture of that TV on a 10-year-old plasma that's been on its last legs for months, then all that beauty is lost on you.

In this case, the backing track ("Flue Trippin'", by an artist called Sandman) is packed with powerful and cool sounds meant to show off what a great pair of headphones is capable of. However, if it sounds good to you, then the logical conclusion is that your current sound setup is adequate.

That's an odd conundrum for advertisers and agencies. The obvious way around it is to try to dazzle with excessive style or turn the screws of influence using expensive celebrity endorsements (Beats, Ad Nut is looking at you).

The approach Bose takes here is straightforward and probably more sensible for the the kind of people who can afford Bose headphones. Show the products. Hint at their capabilities. Hopefully get people interested so they'll try them. What more do you need to do?

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(This article first appeared on CampaignAsia.com)